Monthly Comments

In March, stock markets were mostly up. The Stockholm Stock Exchange was one of the best performing markets, driven by strong gains for cyclical companies and as well as banks. The long-term interest rate in the US continued to rise...

February started off with relatively strong stock markets. The hysteria surrounding Gamestop and other shorted companies subsided and hopes of an increased vaccination rate contributed to the optimism. However, towards the middle of the month, the markets turned...

2021 started off relatively strong with rising stock markets. In the US, the Democrats managed to get a majority both in the House of Representatives and the Senate, the latter through Vice President Kamala Harris's tiebreaking vote. Financial markets reacted positively...

We are putting a difficult year behind us with major movements in the financial markets as a result of Covid-19. A pandemic that has caused great suffering, resulted in massive monetary and fiscal measures and is likely to lead to new patterns of behaviour. Investor focus has also been on the US presidential election, investments in sustainability and the dominant position of the tech companies, amongst others.

In December, financial markets in general showed positive performance. The OMX30 however, declined around 2% which sums up to a rise of just under 6% for the whole of 2020.

November can be summed up with a sharp rise in the financial markets - the SAX index in Stockholm had its best November performance since 2002 and the Dow Jones in the US its best since 1987. A combination of positive news regarding a vaccine, Biden as a winner in the US elections and more economic stimulus pushed markets upwards.

At the beginning of October, the financial markets continued their positive trend. However, when news of a second wave of Covid-19 emerged, the mood swung and the markets turned into negative territory.

During September, stock indices generally fell in both Europe and the US. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Index and the MSCI World Index also showed negative performance. In Sweden though, the OMX Stockholm Index finished the month in positive territory.

During August, the financial markets continued to rise. The positive momentum was led by growth companies in the tech sector and the Nasdaq Index rose sharply.

July has been a busy month with company reports for the very interesting second quarter but also a lot of macro statistics and geopolitical events. The company reports generally came in better than anticipated. Expectations were also relatively low due to the difficult economic situation many companies have experienced during the spring.