Brexit No Lehman to Europe Strategists Keeping Stock Calls

Even as global markets teetered last week and polls showed more U.K. voters leaning toward leaving the trading bloc, securities firms surveyed by Bloomberg are predicting the outcome will be largely a non-issue for equities. They’ve left practically untouched predictions that European shares will rise almost 10 percent through the rest of the year.

While the stasis may reflect confidence, it’s more likely another sign of the futility that has plagued anyone trying to figure out European shares the past two years, a period in which they rallied to a record and then posted three of the worst quarters since the financial crisis. Yes, the threat of a British secession is real, but it follows episodes such as the Greek meltdown and sovereign-debt crisis that proved impossible to handicap.