Dear Clients, Friends and Partners of Das Family Office,

In most years, July is a good month on the stock markets, which is then often followed by a volatile period between August and November.

This year, the month surprised with a very good performance in almost all global markets.

Only Indian equities and shares from Latin America and the healthcare sector suffered losses. The shares of large American companies performed exceptionally well. This was accompanied by a somewhat stronger U.S. dollar, which helped the performance of non-U.S. Dollar investors.

Asian equities also had a good month, except for India. Singapore stocks did surprisingly well and continue to look attractive.

Apart from Switzerland, which traditionally has a strong weighting in the healthcare sector, European stock markets also recorded gains.

The outperformance of Europe compared to the U.S. that has been observed since the beginning of the year has lost momentum. For the year, however, European equities, led by the German DAX index, are still far ahead in terms of performance.

The same applies to Asian and Latin American equities. This is a development which we haven’t seen in many years.

Global bond markets enjoyed generally positive returns in July for U.S. Dollar investors. This includes long-dated U.S. treasuries, which had been sold off in recent months.

Specialty bonds in the Tier 1 Capital/Coco segment or Emerging Market High Yield continued their positive development and built upon the attractive returns achieved in prior months.

The high level of government debt and expected new borrowing in Europe and America tend to focus bond buyers on the so-called ‘short end’.

It remains to be seen whether the recently achieved 5% yield for long-dated U.S. Treasuries will be the high for this cycle…

In addition to our quarterly updates, we've decided to compile a monthly document to keep our community abreast of the developments of our most important investment ideas.

Please take a look at the abundance of information and specific ideas on how you can build an investment portfolio that works!

 

With best wishes for a wonderful August.

Yours Truly,

Mario Becker