2023

No comment. Don’t want to spoil the warm feeling we may get from looking at the figures.
Have a great Sunday.

These days one cannot escape an enhanced feeling of cluelessness, similar to the one exhibited by the poor animal in the cover picture.

A very positive week for equities, ‘risk assets’ as some like to call them, and a correspondingly negative one for bonds (‘safe assets’).

Supportive news on inflation and improving prospects for less restrictive monetary policies pushed the markets higher, despite the increasing tensions about the debt ceiling negotiations in the US.

Markets had a relatively muted week, despite problems in the American banking sector and central bankers raising rates.

An inversion of results during the last week of April: bonds up, stocks down. This behavior seems to be associated with a revision of growth prospects, as evidenced by the outperformance – a rare occurrence in the last two years – of nominal bonds over inflation linkers.

Global equities continue their march higher, though with some notable regional exceptions: emerging markets are still under pressure, returning -1.6% during the week in Euro terms.

While markets continue their recovery and behave mainly in a normal way, there is something somewhat suspicious lurking under the surface.

A relatively muted and shortened session, with equities under pressure and bonds holding their own.