Monthly Comments

After strong stock market performance during October and November, mainly driven by signals of declining inflation and hopes for softer central banks, market sentiment changed as focus shifted to the state of the economy and a possible slowdown.

Markets kept rising during November. Strong demand in global industry, a slightly lower inflation rate with falling commodity prices and less hawkish tones from the central banks contributed to the positive sentiment. Both the ECB and the FED...

Despite continued high inflation figures, the major stock indexes rose in October. The companies' reports for the third quarter have been in focus, generally they have been satisfactory. On the Swedish side, the industrial companies showed continued strong order intake, higher costs with some margin pressure as a result, and positive currency effects due to a weak SEK.

The negative market sentiment from the second half of August continued during September. The Stockholm SAX index fell close to 7.5% and the Nasdaq exchange in the US by just over 10%, which means that they have both lost just over 30% year to date.

The positive sentiment in July and halfway into August ended in the middle of the month as markets turned negative. Above all, there were several indications from the world's central banks that further interest rate increases are to be expected.

The stock markets generally ended the month of July with relatively large gains. Inflation figures remained high and both the US FED and the ECB raised their respective interest rates.

The negative mood continued in June with falling stock and bond markets. High inflation figures increase the risk of interest rate hikes, which in turn can cause the economy to be thrown into a recession. Both the US Federal Reserve and the Swedish Riksbank also raised their policy rates - 0.75% in the US and 0.50% in Sweden.

May was characterized by continued turmoil in the financial markets, but after sharp declines at the beginning of the month, the stock markets recovered and ended with relatively small changes.

Continued war in Ukraine and its implications put markets under pressure in April. In connection with new shutdowns in China, the risk of continued logistics problems and component shortages, increased, with supply disruptions and rising prices as a result.

The war in Ukraine continues to dominate the news flow and our thoughts. Despite all the horror, the major stock markets have remained largely unchanged since the outbreak of war on the 24th of February.