Investment Officer

Luxembourg has named Yuriko Backes as its new finance minister, replacing former finance minister Pierre Gramegna. She is the first woman to occupy the role.

Backes is formerly the Chief of the Grand Ducal Household. Prior to that, Backes served head of the European Commission’s representative office in Luxembourg, as well as being a diplomatic advisor (known as a “Sherpa”) to prime ministers Jean-Claude Juncker and Xavier Bettel.

Energy sector equities are having a good year. In recent years, however, investors in the sector have had a rough time of it. With the rise of sustainable investing and the greater awareness that the world needs to move away from fossil fuels to put an end to climate change, investments in companies that are active in the field of fossil fuels are under a magnifying glass.

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin wants to vote against President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better programme. Since the Democrats only have a narrow majority in the Senate, a majority that they are going to lose at the end of this year, the generosity of the American government will be over.

According to the Republican senators and Manchin, it is no longer about saving the economy, but about fighting rising inflation.

Traditionally, the first outlooks for the coming year trickle in from September onwards. With sometimes a quarter of a year still to go, strategists start relating their vision of the economic and financial themes that await investors in the next calendar year. The big question is which investors have actually hit the mark in their outlook for 2021. The reckoning. 

It was the week of the central banks. The Bank of England raised interest rates by 15 basis points, the US Fed hinted at three rate hikes and a reduction in the buy-back programme. What exactly the ECB is aiming for is not entirely clear to market analysts. One thing is clear: a rate hike is the ultimum remedium for the central bank of President Christine Lagarde. 

Every year, thousands of new investment funds see the light of day. A catchy name, an attractive website and a slick factsheet tout a new, seemingly well-thought-out investment strategy that offers investors a unique opportunity to respond to current investment themes, making use of the proven expertise of fund houses. However promising new investment funds are presented, many do not survive the test of time. 

Quintet Private Bank has become more positive on Asia, both strategically and tactically. In the short term, the bank said that it believes that Asian high yield bonds currently offer better risk-adjusted returns than either China or Asian equities. The bank’s Bill Street said this on Tuesday during an outlook presentation and in a reply to additional questions from Fondsnieuws, Investment Officer Luxembourg’s sister publication.

Just a few weeks after the UN climate conference COP26 in Glasgow, one of the European Commission’s most important initiatives in recent years is under fire: the “EU Taxonomy”. The reason is a number of EU Member States that want to admit natural gas - and even nuclear energy - to the list of green energy sources. Europe suddenly risks becoming “the laggard of the world”, critics have warned.

Saxo’s traditional “Outrageous predictions” for 2021 were right on target, suggesting an extreme rise in inflation in 2021. For next year, the bank is betting on a 15 per cent inflation rate in the US through wage-price spirals. What other self-styled outrageous, striking, bizarre predictions does Saxo have in store for next year? 

Luxembourg’s real estate investment sector has recovered strongly from the economic slowdowns caused by the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic, according to figures released in the Association of the Luxembourg Fund industry’s (ALFI)  15th annual Luxembourg real estate investment funds survey. (Full version link below.)