Investissement

Growth has turned into our modern-day holy grail—a beacon that politicians, companies, and individuals relentlessly chase, often with promises and aspirations that border on the fantastical. Every election cycle, candidates tout it as their deliverable. Businesses chase perpetually climbing profits, and personal discontent brews if our earnings stagnate or our living spaces don’t expand. Yet, ironically, the signs increasingly suggest that, deep down, we might not truly crave this endless expansion.

Chaque mois, Investment Officer sonde Jan Longeval, expert en investissement, sur sa vision de l’actualité économique et financière. Au menu cette semaine : la fin de la politique de taux zéro au Japon, avec un démenti sur un cliché répandu concernant les obligations d’État.

Le cours de l’or franchit record après record, au grand étonnement de tous.

Historiquement, le principal paramètre influençant le cours de l’or est le taux d’intérêt réel. Ce dernier représente en effet le coût d’opportunité pour détenir ce métal précieux, car contrairement aux obligations et aux actions, les investisseurs ne reçoivent pas de revenus de leurs investissements physiques en or. Le taux d’intérêt réel est actuellement à son apogée depuis la crise financière : l’avancée de l’or interpelle donc.

France reported a few weeks ago that its already exorbitant budget deficit of 4.9 per cent of French GDP would be breached. And that was no lie. According to statistics agency Insee, the budget for 2023 will go into the minus by a whopping 5.5 per cent. And with that, the chances of France becoming a second Italy are rapidly increasing.

L’intelligence artificielle (IA) a encore dominé les marchés financiers sur les premiers mois de 2024. Les semi-conducteurs, indispensables à l’IA, ont bondi, comme l’illustre la progression fulgurante de Nvidia. Mais si les perspectives à long terme du secteur des semi-conducteurs sont florissantes, grâce à une demande insatiable de puces, tout n’est pas aussi rose qu’il y paraît. 

Over the past year, Nvidia’s stock has soared by more than 200%, igniting talks of a «bubble» among the self-proclaimed financial seers. But what precisely do we mean by a «bubble»? This term, often thrown around loosely, lacks a consistent definition among its most vocal proponents.

At the Trends Investment Summit, investment experts from major Belgian banks discussed asset management and allocations, cautioning against undue optimism amid a robust US economy, inflation risks, and shifting investment strategies for 2024.

«In general, one ought to be cautious of undue optimism,» remarked Philippe Gijsels, Chief Investment Officer at BNP Paribas Fortis, addressing attendees on the economic and financial market landscape.

Luxembourg’s private equity services business of Partners Group, which accounts for more than a third of its revenue, held up well last year in what otherwise was a challenging year for the Swiss-based firm.

Partners Group on Tuesday reported that its revenue from management services in Luxembourg rose 2.3 percent last year to 684.5 million Swiss francs (710 million euro).

Increasing numbers of analysts are now forecasting that the Federal Reserve will not implement any rate cuts before 2025. This follows an unexpected rise in US inflation in February, suggesting that the Federal Reserve may postpone any thoughts of reducing rates. Despite previous market expectations of an interest rate cut in June, experts at Vanguard, Apollo, and other institutions are now suggesting that the Fed could maintain current interest rates throughout the year.

Morningstar on Monday posted its European asset flows data for February 2024, revealing significant investor interest in equity and fixed-income funds amidst anticipation of interest-rate cuts.

Europe-domiciled long-term funds reported net inflows of 19.4 billion euro during the month, with equity funds experiencing their second consecutive month of positive inflows, amounting to 5.1 billion euro. This growth was predominantly seen in passive equity funds, which attracted 19.1 billion euro, whereas active equity funds continued to see outflows.