Getty Images Relief over France’s 2017 election helped lift French stocks to a 9-year high.Tagged as hot spot for investment in 2017, European equities are now heading toward their best performance in years, but the ride hasn’t been without a couple of unexpected developments — and insights — that cropped up along the way for money managers. Market moves After broadly striking a bullish tone heading into 2017, major banks were rounding off the year by exceeding their respective targets on broad European stock indexes. J.P. Morgan, for example, projected the MSCI Europe Index would end at 1,500. The benchmark’s poised to finish above 1,770, with a few trading sessions left to go. “Clearly, 2017 was the year where global activity and global earnings strongly surprised on the upside,” and helped propel European stocks higher, said Emmanuel Cau, global equity strategist at J.P. Morgan, in a telephone interview.via