Over the past decade, outside of a handful of large technology companies, earnings per share (EPS) growth has, in part, been a function of financial engineering by way of share buybacks. All this is made possible by low interest rates. As governments continue to pile on debt and artificially keep interest rates low, this can continue, and will based on what central banks are telling us. Is it fundamentally bullish? No way! Can stocks keep responding? Yes, they can! When we look at Europe (VGK) and Emerging Markets (EEM) EPS growth in the past decade, there isnât any. I mean zero, nada, die null. More than ever before, the markets are very sensitive to interest rates.