H2 starts with momentum intact

Ipek Ozkardeskaya ipekScope

The first half of this hectic year – marked by severe geopolitical tensions and an energy crisis – ended on an exceptionally strong note. The S&P500 posted a nearly 10% rise, the Stoxx 600 gained more than 8% and closed yesterday after hitting a fresh ATH, while the Nikkei is up 40% since the first trading day of the year. The Taiwanese Taiex gained 60%, and the Korean Kospi 100%.

The spike in Oil prices had only a short-lived impact on global investor appetite. AI optimism fuelled the indices higher, chipmakers were the biggest winners, Big Tech stagnated on fears that massive and increasingly leveraged AI spending wouldn't generate satisfactory returns on investment, while software companies swung between fears that AI would kill their business and hopes that increasingly expensive AI tokens wouldn't fully replace humans and existing services.

Today, 3.5 years after ChatGPT entered our everyday lives, many agree that AI significantly increases productivity and will be deflationary over the medium to long term. In the short run, however, this transition is costing many people their jobs.

Read the full article here.

Author

Ipek Ozkardeskaya

ipekScope

Ipek Ozkardeskaya began her financial career in 2010 in the structured products desk of the Swiss Banque Cantonale Vaudoise. She worked in HSBC Private Bank in Geneva in relation to high and ultra-high-net-worth clients.

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