This is one case where it’s easier to write the name than the symbol, which includes its principal trading market, Copenhagen.

Pandora is the jewelry company that burst on the scene early in the decade with an innovative line of charm bracelets.  It IPOed to much fanfare in Copenhagen in 20111   …and almost immediately collapsed as its product began to be knocked off by established jewelry chains.

The company has since rebuilt itself.  The stock is now about 10x the price at its nadir almost exactly three years ago.  I’m still learnings the story–and this is not a stock I feel comfortable enough with to recommend that anyone else buy it.  But the turnaround seems to have been accomplished with better management, stronger control of inventories and the introduction of a line of rings, which are harder to knock off.

There are more pluses to the story, like development of the company’s own retail channel and increasing e-commerce presence, which is boosting purchases by men.  But the knockoff issue still exists:  here in the US, for example, Signet Jewelers’ Jared sells Pandora; its lower-end but much larger sibling, Kay, sells its own knockoff line.

Two ideas attracted me to Pandora a few months ago:  the rings, and the possibility that continuing economic weakness in the EU would force people to trade down further–meaning that a company like Pandora might increasingly be in the sweet spot for jewelry.  My main worry is that I’m very late to the party, as the stock chart illustrates.

The main reason I’m writing about Pandora, though, is not to highlight the company but to point out a fact about the dollar.  In Danish kroner, I’m up by 11% since buying the stock in August.  In US$, however, I’m up a tad less 3%.  Yes, I’ve wildly outperformed European stock indices but I’ve given almost all of it back in losses on the currency.

My point:  that’s what’s been happening to every US company that has a presence in Europe (or in Japan, for that matter) since May.  Of course, not all of them have sales that are way above average for Europe, so they generally have US$ losses on operations.  On the other hand, the biggest of them will have hedging operations that temper the near-term effects of currency fluctuations.

Given that about a quarter of the earnings of the S&P 500 come from Europe, it seems to me that the combination of weak economic performance there plus weak currencies represents the biggest threat to earnings growth facing the S&P 500 today.

I don’t think this issue is a reason to sell US stocks across the board.  It’s more a reason to reposition away from firms with European exposure.  Upcoming earnings reports from companies like Tiffany will give us more information.

Conversely, European currency weakness is setting up another opportunity to buy Europe-based multinationals with significant dollar exposure, just as we had several years ago.  Typically, the negative effects of currency depreciation are factored into stock prices first, and the positive effect on earnings only with a lag.

PS.  On December 3, 2014, in kroner I’m up about 22%, in US$ about 12%.