Category: Daily Instagraph

As Warren Buffett rightly said, “The best time to get rich is a crisis,” provided one has independent thinking, financial preparation and the right temperament. Charlie Munger usefully completes the thought: temperament alone is not enough; it must be combined with the right basic idea and pursued with curiosity over a long period of time. … Continued

As we wrote last week, the key issue was never the headlines alone, but whether the conflict would turn into a lasting oil shock. For now, that is still not what markets are signaling. As John Authers, columnist at Bloomberg Opinion, points out, Brent crude surged from around $84 to almost $119 and then fell … Continued

As we write this morning, the conflict with Iran is clearly intensifying and financial markets are reacting accordingly. Brent crude has surged above USD 110 per barrel, Japanese equities are sharply lower with the Nikkei down around 7%, and both European and US futures are deeply in the red. In other words, markets are no … Continued

Technology, Media & Telco stocks are experiencing one of their worst starts to the year relative to global equity markets in the past 50 years. Stretched valuations, concerns over excessive concentration in a handful of Big Tech names, and rising fears of AI disruption, particularly in software and media, are weighing on investor sentiment. Many … Continued

To put the market impact of the Iran conflict into perspective, today’s chart shows the performance of the Dow Jones during World War II, alongside an instructive comment from Warren Buffett on what to own in wartime: “Well, if you tell me all of that [major wars] is going to happen, I will still be … Continued

As the Iran conflict moves into its fifth day, markets are staying in defensive mode. In a nutshell: oil is up, the dollar and gold are up, and equity markets outside the US are feeling the selling pressure. The German DAX, for example, is down ~6% over the last three days, while the S&P 500 … Continued

As André Huwiler rightly points out in his latest Quotedian, the “Magnificent 7” have quietly turned into the “Maleficent 7”. As of last Friday, all seven names were negative year-to-date: Microsoft (-18.8%), Tesla (-10.5%), Amazon (-9.0%), Nvidia (-5.0%), Apple (-2.8%), Meta (-1.8%) and Alphabet (-0.4%). This is happening in an environment where the S&P 500 … Continued

A new military conflict involving the US and Iran has started, already affecting the Gulf states—costing lives and further destabilising the region. From a market perspective, the first point to keep in mind is that wars and geopolitical shocks typically do not derail equity markets over the long run. The chart below shows the performance … Continued

Interesting chart linking US companies’ labour costs with their exposure to AI automation. In a nutshell, sectors like software and business services are labour-intensive (think programmers, engineers, consultants) but also more exposed to AI-driven automation (e.g., automated coding, copilots, workflow agents). Conversely, sectors like food & beverage appear less exposed to AI automation, so the … Continued

Equity investors are rediscovering Europe as an asset class after years of US exceptionalism. Flows into European equities are reaching new record highs. The narrative is straightforward: a potential reversal after 17 years of relative underperformance versus the US, a clear valuation discount across most metrics, improving sentiment as fiscal spending ramps up — notably … Continued