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.