Latest insights

May and the first two weeks of June saw a good performance from risk assets, while rates assets underperformed.

You want to talk about euro swap spreads versus US swap spreads? We watch that, too. But to be honest, that graph is one of the last things we look at when managing euro fixed income aggregate portfolios. So if you want to see it, you’ll have to read all the rest of this page first.

In what can only be described as an event-packed May, financial markets navigated a minefield of global macro developments: escalating US–China trade tensions, a surge in Japanese government bond yields, and renewed concern about fiscal sustainability across developed markets.

After the hit to risky assets and even US Treasury bonds in the wake of the so-called “Liberation Day” announcement of a far higher tariff regime, some semblance of calm returned to markets.

European yields have returned to more historical norms following the years in the low-yield wilderness, while the German fiscal situation is reaching an inflection point.

April unfolded as a month of intense turbulence in financial markets, driven by a barrage of political manoeuvrings, economic uncertainty, and shifting monetary policies. Markets were rattled by elevated tariffs, escalating rhetoric, and retaliatory measures that prompted investors to reassess growth prospects, price in heightened recession risks, and retreat from riskier assets.

The bond markets in March were already abuzz with talk of tariffs, as the Trump administration implemented previously delayed tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. .

According to the Institute for Economics & Peace, there are 56 active conflicts in the world, the greatest number since the end of World War II. Increasingly complex geopolitics and ReArm Europe are keeping investors on our toes, analytically.