Current market information and expert opinions 📈🌍📉
What’s happening on the stock markets? Which sectors and trends are currently popular on the market? Where is the global economy heading, and how are the latest economic developments affecting share prices? Here, our experts and fund managers provide answers to the most pressing questions for investors 👉
The semiconductor industry is considered one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI boom. Investors therefore kept a close eye on the sector’s figures for the first three months of 2025. One thing became clear: the expansion of AI infrastructure continues to deliver good results for most chip companies – but the sword of Damocles in the form of impending US tariffs is still hanging over industry giants such as Nvidia & Co. Read more in today’s blog post.
Following the tariffs shock and the accompanying market turmoil, the deferral of said tariffs has led to a surprisingly rapid upturn on the equity markets. That being said, uncertainty remains high, even though the US reporting season has been positive so far. Read more in the market commentary by Gerald Stadlbauer, Head of Discretionary Portfolio Management.
The US government’s extensive tariff plans have been causing volatility on the stock markets since last week. Yesterday’s announcement of a 90-day pause for the new tariffs was met with relief by the markets – even though a further escalation between the US and China is on the horizon. We take a look at the current situation on the financial markets and analyse the possible consequences of an escalation in the trade conflict.
With the first interest rate hike in five years, the US Federal Reserve has ushered in a new era. Is the period of cheap money now over? When will the European Central Bank follow suit?
A tight race is shaping up in the run-off election for the French presidency in a fortnight. What concerns both candidates is the preservation of purchasing power and the high prices for oil and natural gas. How will the financial markets react to the election result?
In the US, interest rate hikes to a level of 3% by the end of 2023 have become likely. When will the European Central Bank follow? Erste Asset Management Chief Economist Gerhard Winzer analyses the interest rate policies of the central banks.
The increased demand for semiconductors continues to cause supply bottlenecks. This is why the EU wants to boost Europe’s share of the global market in semiconductor production. In particular, computers and mobile phones as well as consumer electronics are in demand.
Within two years, the global economy has been confronted by two negative events or, indeed, shocks: the Covid pandemic was the first one, having not only killed six million people globally at this point, but having also caused an unprecedented slump in the global economy and the subsequent recovery. The second one, i.e. the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, is of a geopolitical nature and has triggered a commodity price shock.
Drinking water is one of the earth’s limited resources. Water shortage can entail a variety of implications. On the occasion of World Water Day, Walter Hatak, Head of Responsible Investments at Erste Asset Management, analyzes the risks of water consumption.
The war in Ukraine led to losses for Russian bonds. In an interview for OUR VIEW, fund manager Anton Hauser explains why government bonds from Eastern Europe offer an alternative.
Although volatility and uncertainty remain particularly high in the capital markets, there has been some stabilization and, most recently, a slight recovery in the equity markets since last week.
After the oil price climbed to its highest level since 2008 in the previous week, the countries want to end their dependence on Russian oil and natural gas supplies.
The global economy was confronted with two negative developments within two years: the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war. Erste Asset Management’s Chief Economist Winzer analyzes the stagflationary state of the economy.
What are the effects of the sanctions imposed on Russia on our funds? Interview with Alexandre Dimitrov, Senior Fund Manager with more than 20 years of experience and special field of expertise: equity markets Russia and CEE.
Stocks posted significant gains on Wednesday after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell signaled that the central bank would begin raising interest rates this month. Stock markets interpreted this as a positive signal in the sense that the threat to growth posed by the war in Ukraine did not justify a change of course in monetary policy at the moment.
We want to highlight the possible impact of the war in Ukraine on investment decisions. In short, the conflict reinforces already existing trends. In addition, the global recovery scenario is still holding, but recession risks in Europe have increased.
Last Friday saw the West’s first reaction to the invasion. Both the US, the EU and the UK announced sanctions against Russia. These mainly target Russia’s largest banks, oligarchs and the export of technology goods to Russia.
Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine on Thursday. The financial markets are reacting with price declines, a rise in the price of crude oil, a fall in the Russian ruble and price rises in credit-sensitive government bonds. We provide an assessment of the current market situation.
The Russia/Ukraine conflict is keeping the markets in suspense. Everything is possible – from continued diplomacy in order to contain the escalation to harder sanctions in case of a more comprehensive invasion. The volatility on the financial markets will remain high.
The automotive industry is slowly recovering from the shortage of semiconductors in 2020 and 2021. The European car manufacturers recently presented more positive figures. The switch to electromobility is now in full swing.
Rising inflation and rising bond yields have recently caused uncertainty among investors. Will key interest rates in the USA be raised soon? Erste Asset Management’s Chief Economist Winzer outlines 3 scenarios for the interest rate policy of the central banks.
Biotechnology shares have seen better times. Despite the most recent corrections, hopes for growth in the biotechnology sector remain very high. We spoke to Harald Kober, fund manager of ERSTE STOCK BIOTEC, about the latest developments.
US technology stocks have been subject to high fluctuations recently. Facebook reported significant share price losses. In contrast, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon delivered solid figures. The technology sector should continue to grow in the future.
Erste Asset Management was yet again ranked first among the Austrian investment companies last year. Assets under management in Austria had increased by 16.6% y/y to EUR 47.7bn as of 31 December 2021.
We have seen some extraordinary years speaking about equity and multi asset performance. Interest rates were low, volatility – representing the average daily price changes – was comparably low. What is the situation today?
Energy prices are going through the roof at the moment. The causes are both political and economic. Shares in the energy and commodities sector offer potential for further price increases.
Waves of infections will continue to influence economic activity and the markets. What will happen in China, what are the inflation risks and will it be volatile? Our chief economist Gerhard Winzer has drawn up 10 theses for the year 2022.
Italy is about to elect a new president of state. The election that will be held from 24 January 2022 in several ballots is going to determine the successor of the current, 80-year old President Sergio Mattarella, whose mandate expires in February 2022. This was announced by the president of the chamber of deputies of […]
We are now into the third year of the pandemic. Since the spring 2020 collapse, economic activity and markets have shown exceptional resilience. This is not to be taken for granted. After all, the list of potential negative influences (“challenges”) is long.
Interview with Dr. Manfred Frühwirth, Vienna University of Economic and Business Administration What is Behavioural Finance? Behavioural Finance is located at the interface of finance and psychology. As a rule, Behavioural Finance investigates how irrational behaviour (most often on the investors’ part) affects asset prices on the capital market. 2a) Are there any examples of […]
For the world’s stock markets, the second year of the coronavirus pandemic ended with partly spectacular gains. Which stock markets were the best in 2021? One thing should be said in advance: The Vienna Stock Exchange was among the top performers
The most common form of supranational financial institutions are development banks, whose shareholders are usually the founding states. Investors’ exposure to bonds issued by development banks allows them to finance local infrastructure or climate projects at lower cost, which ultimately benefits the local population.
Germany’s first federal government coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Green Party – called the “traffic light” coalition for the parties’ traditional colours – has now been in office for just under two weeks and is starting its planned renewal programme at the most difficult time imaginable. The train towards climate protection and renewable energies is picking up speed.
Just when it looked like a quiet end to the year on the stock markets, the emergence of Omicron shook investor confidence and led to a sell-off lasting several days. How has market optimism evolved since then? Our stock expert Tamás Menyhárt gives an outlook.
At 5.2% y/y, consumer price inflation for the OECD region reached the highest value in October since 1997. Has inflation peaked, or are we at the outset of a sustained period of high inflation?
On November 26, the traditional “Black Friday“ of discount deals in the US and many other countries officially kicks off the immensely important Christmas shopping season for many industries. However, with the trend towards online shopping accelerating with the Corona pandemic, how will this turn out this year?
The global view on inflation has turned completely since Spring 2020. While low inflation has been an issue between the Great Financial Crisis and the start of the pandemic, multi-year-highs in inflation were reached in Spring 2021. What will happen next?
Fund manager Felix Dornaus attended the autumn meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. His impressions of the outlook for emerging markets summed up here.
Funds marketing themselves as green investment do not always focus on companies that fight climate change, develop solar modules or recycle batteries. Instead, many of them look like traditional portfolios holding large tech companies – yet they wear green labels.
In recent years, we have seen dynamic growth emerging. It started with green bonds, which were then complemented by social bonds, sustainability bonds (a combination of environmental and social projects), and sustainability-linked bonds.
By integrating sustainable factors, we pursue social and environmental justice and have mechanisms and tools in place to avoid greenwashing. Our mission is also to align our sustainability approach with the investment needs of our clients to build a solid foundation for the future.
Crude oil prices continued to soar in the past week. The background to the oil price increases lies in the rising demand for oil combined with the ongoing economic recovery and fears of tight supply. The price surge in recent days was triggered by a drop in oil reserves reported by the US government on Wednesday.
In recent months, the risk of stagflation (the simultaneous occurrence of economic stagnation and inflation) has increased. Without the pandemic, output would be higher and inflation lower: bottlenecks in production and logistics have slowed economic activity and caused prices in the goods sector to rise sharply.
Two nearly simultaneous events surrounding social network behemoth Facebook have recently directed public attention towards the network’s impact and power, giving Facebook critics new momentum: After an outage of the most important Facebook services last Monday that lasted several hours, former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen made serious accusations against the company before the US Senate the following day.
Global stock markets have fallen back from their all-time highs in recent weeks. What were the causes? What potential do the equity experts at Erste Asset Management see until the end of the year?
Falling economic indicators, anger in China and interest rate decisions by central banks are currently in the focus of the financial markets. Our chief economist Gerhard Winzer analyses the current situation.
Is there a solution to the current situation of real estate developer Evergrande? How high is the share of speculative real estate purchases in China, who profits and what Evergrande has to do with the 2008 financial crisis, explains Senior Professional Fund Manager Péter Varga.
