Investment Officer Germany

For decades, it was an iron law for investors: in the long run, the stock market follows economic growth. A thriving economy translated into rising corporate profits and thus higher share prices. But anyone who has watched the past thirty years closely senses a growing friction with this old wisdom.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a multibillion-dollar deal last week with the US for the construction of a series of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). Although the so-called “nuclear renaissance” is also taking shape in Europe according to investors, they see American companies as the main beneficiaries.

Eurozone corporate bonds delivered a return of 4.2 percent over the past twelve months (as measured by the Morningstar Eurozone Corporate Bond Index), while their US counterpart, the Morningstar US Corporate Bond Index, lost 1.8 percent in euro terms. The currency effect was crucial here.

Assets in gold ETFs and ETCs have more than doubled worldwide in just two years, rising from nearly 200 to 439 billion dollars. “In the current gold rally, these instruments have gained significant momentum.”

Should you invest in crypto? A fundamental question for every investor. In a paper, Ran Duchin, David H. Solomon, Jun Tu, and Xi Wang reach a surprising and provocative conclusion.

Europe’s pensions supervisor is relaunching the failed Pan-European Personal Pension Product under a new label, EuroPension. Critics warn the project risks repeating past mistakes: too complex to compete with low-cost ETFs, too weak to rival national schemes, and too focused on capital markets at the expense of statutory pensions.

Pimco and Bluebay take different but equally sophisticated approaches to Euro bond investing, with both managers making active use of derivatives to steer portfolios, manage risk, and seize relative value opportunities. Their strategies highlight how synthetic instruments, often seen as opaque, can serve as powerful tools in fixed income investing.

What could hardly be considered a surprise anymore still turned into one. The annual revision of US job growth came in even bigger than expected. As anticipated, it triggered a flood of reactions—though often the wrong ones.

In a world where climate risk is becoming an increasingly prominent factor, I argue that the psychological perception of this risk has a significant and measurable impact on asset prices.