July was primarily characterised by the second-quarter reports. In summary, companies delivered adequate results with good profits but somewhat sluggish order intake. Among individual companies, we saw some larger movements. Towards the end of the month, the market was concerned by an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East and statements from Trump that Taiwan should pay for protection from the USA. Biden threatened companies in the semiconductor industry, which supply equipment to China, with tariffs. This created some significant movements within the semiconductor industry, notably for ASML. The market also began to sense a weakening of the US economy and now expects more interest rate cuts than before – something that caused American small-cap stocks to outperform.