Better than expected

At least two of our 6 investment themes we provided at the beginning of the year will also make it in our Q2 house view. One prediction in December 2023 was a slowing economic growth but no hard recession. 3 months later, economic data around the world remains stronger than most economists had foreseen as illustrated with the Citi Global Economic Surprise Index. For example, only last week the US and China showed stronger than expected factory activity. Needless to stress that this is good news for the corporate world and the stock prices of some early cyclicals, like miners, are already reacting positively. We will come back over the coming days with an update on our remaining investment themes.