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Quarterly Investment Letters
Q1 2025 – Quarterly Investment Letter
The US economy showed resilience, with 2.8% GDP growth driven by robust consumer spending and AI investments, despite vulnerabilities from subdued business and government expenditures. Donald Trump’s presidential victory prompted market shifts, driving gains in
Q4 2024 – Quarterly Investment Letter
A weaker US labour market causes downward pressure on wage growth, which softens private consumption and dampens the econom-ic outlook. Inflation moderated in the US and Europe. In August, disappointing US jobs figures and tightening
Q3 2024 – Quarterly Investment Letter
The global economy is demonstrating resilience, especially for the US, China, and emerging markets. The risk of a global recession has diminished, with emerging markets outperforming advanced economies. Equity markets hit new highs in Q2
Q2 2024-Quarterly Investment Letter
Core economies sustained late-stage expansion, while China pursued policy adjustments aimed at stimulating economic growth. Market optimism drove the S&P 500 to record highs, supported by robust economic indicators, including a strong job report and
Q1 2024-Quarterly Investment Letter
The economy faces a slowdown with rising capital costs, yet resilient consumers and government support avert an imminent recession. Markets expect a “soft landing” economic cooling. Market sentiment pivoted favourably as the perception of inflation
Q4 2023 – Quarterly Investment Letter
The economic outlook is soft, but not disastrous. US economy demonstrates strong resilience, highlighted by robust labour market conditions, and documented by a solid 2.4% annualized real GDP growth rate in Q2. There are no
Q3 2023 – Quarterly Investment Letter
Despite the negative turn in the economic cycle, the presence of a resilient consumer base and favourable government policies have mitigated the risk of an immediate recession and minimized the potential for a severe economic
Q2 2023-Quarterly Investment Letter
The economic environment presents challenges for investors as market expectations diverge from reality. Despite positive signs in Europe and China, stubborn inflation, deteriorating quarterly dynamics in the US and stagnant eurozone growth add to the
Q1 2023-Quarterly Investment Letter
The economic cycle has turned negative, driven by increased inflationary forces and geopolitical issues. The US economy could experience a period of stagflation, the eurozone most likely a mild recession, and China will be held
Q4 2022 – Quarterly Investment Letter
The outlook for the global economy is deteriorating. Inflation is peaking but remains at a structurally higher level, the labor market is likely to stay relatively robust, there are no signs of a ceasefire in
Q3 2022 – Quarterly Investment Letter
Rising inflation pressures forced central banks around the world to reverse the loose monetary policy. A faster-than-expected tightening of the financial conditions weighs on the global economy. Increasing uncertainty about a possible recession in late
Q2 2022-Quarterly Investment Letter
Inflation pressure is mounting and we deal with a mature business cycle with the risk of entering into a period of stagflation. In the short-term, economic downside risks are rising. Central banks weigh price stability
Q1 2022-Quarterly Investment Letter
Central banks will likely remain cautious about tightening too quickly and global GDP growth is expected to reach 4.4% in 2022. While the new Omicron variant is highly contagious and should delay the recovery process
Q4 2021 – Quarterly Investment Letter
Global GDP growth is reaching peak levels and inflationary pressures are building. After outstanding returns in equities and bonds, investors will have to adjust their long-term return expectations if the principle of “mean reversion” holds
Q3 2021 – Quarterly Investment Letter
Governments and central banks remain commit-ted to generous stimulus measures. This in combination with consumer pent-up demand and a strong wave of capital expenditures form a robust backdrop for the global economy. GDP growth in
Q2 2021-Quarterly Investment Letter
The world is reaching an inflection point in defeating the pandemic, resulting in a possible regime change in inflation, a steepening of the yield curve, equity sector rotation and possibly a revival of commodity prices.
Q1 2021-Quarterly Investment Letter
Investors seem to be living in the best of all worlds. No central bank or government wants to remove economic support too quickly and monetary policy will remain very stimulative. Joe Biden won the US
Q4 2020-Quarterly Investment Letter
Over the next 3-6 months we expect global economic growth to be reasonable, based on the outlook for a viable vaccine, central banks’ ultra-loose monetary policy and governments’ fiscal stimulus measures reaching over USD 13
Q3 2020 – Quarterly Investment Letter
The Covid-19 pandemic has led to drastic actions around the world. Never before in history has it been so easy for Western governments to increase fiscal expenditures through debt. All of this supported by central
Q2 2020-Quarterly Investment Letter
With a global recession now a certainty, government bond yields remain very low and offer no long-term investment perspective, but help diversifying the portfolio as of now. Credit spreads in some market segments have reached extreme levels and led
Q1 2020-Quarterly Investment Letter
Global manufacturing is likely to see a moderate rebound over the next 3-6 months. Hence, a near term recession is highly unlikely. US GDP growth decelerates in 2020. However, consumer spending, driven by low inflation,
Q4 2019-Quarterly Investment Letter
Global growth is receding but (US) consumer confidence remains strong and as long as corporates’ capital expenditures do not further deteriorate, the likelihood for a near-term recession in the US or China is low. US
Q3 2019-Quarterly Investment Letter
The US Fed is the dog that wags the tail. US Treasury futures forecast two rate cuts this year, which will prolong the economic cycle and prevent the USD from further strengthening. US GDP growth
Q2 2019 – Quarterly Investment Letter
The US Fed and the European Central Bank kick the can further down the road and keep interest rates lower for longer. US GDP growth continues to slow but a sudden recession is not on
Q1 2019 – Quarterly Investment Letter
Slowing economic growth in the U.S. and Europe is a fact. We admit the risk, that the current sharp market sell-off could front-run the real economy and increase the speed of an economic softening. The
Q4 2018 – Quarterly Investment Letter
Within the next 6 to 9 months we do not expect a recession in the US nor Europe. Growth in the US is primarily driven by personal consumption and European growth rates have become more
Q3 2018 – Quarterly Investment Letter
We do not expect a recession in the U.S. and in Europe for the next 6 to 9 months. U.S. tax cuts and increased government spending will keep the U.S. economy relatively strong. Chinese growth
Q2 2018 – Quarterly Investment Letter
The first months of 2018 experienced a fast comeback of volatility. Almost all traditional asset classes performed negatively in Q1-2018, putting alternative strategies back in the spotlight to diversify and optimize future performance expectations. Economic
Q1 2018 – Quarterly Investment Letter
Global growth momentum to accelerate and to slightly surpass pace of 2017 of 3.6% (estimate) GDP growth. U.S. tax cuts might add up to 0.5% of U.S. GDP growth. China’s GDP growth is expected to
Q4 2017 – Quarterly Investment Letter
Continued global growth recovery while inflation remains surprisingly low. Equity markets are still leading the way in an environment where all risky assets have done very well since the beginning of the year. Investment Grade
Q3 2017 – Quarterly Investment Letter
Global growth is set for a moderate rebound, both in developed and emerging economies. Risks to global growth are linked to China, where financial bubbles are forming, and to geopolitics, where North Korea is the
Q2 2017 – Quarterly Investment Letter
The first four months of the year were very positive for risky assets as investors focused on the positive impacts resulting from the U.S. upcoming pro-growth policies. Global equities posted a gain of +7.9% during
Q1 2017 – Quarterly Investment Letter
We are witnessing the transition from monetary stimulus to fiscal stimulus (tax cuts, infrastructure spending) and from disinflation to relation. The rise of populism in the Developed Markets is finally forcing governments to adopt more pro-growth
Q4 2016 – Quarterly Investment Letter
Markets showed high levels of complacency brushing aside the negative Brexit vote consequences as all risky assets quickly recouped their losses. Global growth has softened but shows signs of stabilization. US elections dominate market sentiment
Q3 2016 – Quarterly Investment Letter
Global growth will only be moderately affected by Brexit. In Europe, where there will be months of uncertainty affecting business and consumer sentiment, we expect a larger impact. Interest rate levels of government bonds have
Q2 2016 – Quarterly Investment Letter
Within the first 2 months of the year, there was a self-feeding panic about the global economy slowing down and a potential recession looming in the US. The equity markets were down severely (S&P500 –13%
Q1 2016 – Quarterly Investment Letter
Ignoring unpredictable exogenous shocks, we expect that economic growth will be positive but moderate. Although market sentiment is negatively biased we do not see the typical signals of an impending recession. For instance there is
Q4 2015 – Quarterly Investment Letter
As stated in the previous letter, global growth remains heavily affected by the antagonistic forces of deflationary impulses (energy, commodities), announced monetary tightening (the Fed and Bank of England) and continued monetary stimulus (ECB, Bank
Q2 2015 – Quarterly Investment Letter
Global growth is happening but it remains sluggish. The economic impact of the gigantic QE measures, at global level, remain underwhelming. Please note that in Q1 2015 alone, more than 20 central banks lowered their
Q1 2015 – Quarterly Investment Letter
Finally, the US will be in the lead to promote economic growth. The majority of other countries are lagging behind. This economic mismatch brings the synchronicity of expansive monetary policies amongst the big players to
Q4 2014 – Quarterly Investment Letter
The key instrument to fix the current financial and economic crises is global growth. The hopes projected into the recovery of the economy were dented in September due to somewhat U.S. weak data. We believe,
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