The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, almost $1000 billion in assets, saw a 2.6% performance in the second quarter. The performance was driven by stocks like Nestle, Tencent and Novartis, while some US stocks dampened performance with the likes of GE, AT&T and IBM. Equities as a whole had a 3.4% rise in Q2, while fixed income investments had a positieve performance of 1.1%. These performances gave the SWF a return of 6.5% in the first sixt months of 2017. A 16 billion bond offering from Amazon to acquire Whole Foods was well absorbed by investors. Seven tranches of bonds, with also a 40 year bond, we're issued and priced against the low end of expectation. The AA- rated company was expected to pay approx 110 basispoints above Treasuries but in the end this went down to 90 basispoints. Even this price seems cheap, compared to other companies like Oracle, Apple and Intel who trade at 60 basispoints over US treasuries. Amazon shares are up over 30% this year versus 10% for the S&P 500.
Last night Trump told Chinese president Xi Jinping that he was ready to investigate in Chinese trade practices. He believes China violated some US intellectual property rights. This could start tariffs for imports from China to the United States. This means Trump is on 'a mission' against two Asian countries, financially versus China and war versus North Korea. After a nine day winning streak for the US markets, this ended with a small loss on Tuesday. The remarks of president Trump where he vows Fury and Fire to North Korea we're the main reason. He warned North Korea to stop threatening the US otherwise Trump will order a devastating strike. Countries in the neighbourhood are on high alert and the futures already down some more points this morning. |
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March 2021
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