Semi-annual reports

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) surprised markets with its decision to cut interest rates on 22 March, becoming the first of the world’s leading central banks to do so. There are encouraging signs on the inflation front, but the fight against high inflation is proving to be stubborn. In the US, hopes that the Federal Reserve would announce a cascade of interest rate cuts this year have been dashed. Nevertheless, the first half of the year was marked by many strong corporate results and an exceptionally positive stock market performance. Swiss equities also performed well, although for once they were below average by international comparison. This was mainly due to the temporary weakness of heavyweights Nestlé and Roche, which were also unable to benefit from the weakening of the Swiss franc, although that should have boosted exports.

Until the autumn, equity markets proved to be very robust and there was hope that the negative year of 2022 would be followed by a year of above-average returns. However, the situation changed temporarily following Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel. In addition to the conflict in the Middle East, the war in Ukraine, persistently high inflation in leading industrial countries and rising interest rates have weighed on equity markets. The markets began to recover in late autumn. In this challenging environment, it is particularly important to pursue a long-term, storm-tested, high-quality investment strategy.

What was long considered unthinkable has become reality. Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (SKA), founded in 1856 by Alfred Escher, the powerful “railway king” of Zurich, has quietly given up the ghost. Several generations of managers have plundered and ruined Credit Suisse, as it is now called, through their incompetence.

Nachdem die weltweit grösste Geldflutung aller Zeiten während über einem Jahrzehnt keine spürbare Teuerung hervorgebracht hat, glaubten nur noch ein paar «Ewiggestrige» an die Geldtheorien, die einst an unseren Universitäten gelehrt wurden. Nun ist die Inflation mit voller Wucht zurück. Die entflammte Teuerung, Lieferkettenprobleme, Rezessionstendenzen und der Krieg in der Ukraine haben die globalen Finanzmärkte im vergangenen Jahr erheblich belastet. Im relativen Performance-Vergleich ist es eines der erfolgreichsten Jahre unserer Firmengeschichte.