Managers in Europe’s largest economy this month defied market expectations and the doom and gloom overshadowing the world economy by reporting rosier views about their present situation.

Germany’s Ifo economics institute said Thursday that the results of this month’s survey of domestic companies showed its headline business climate reading improving two-tenths to 86.9 points. Economists had anticipated a drop to 85.2.

The gain in the Ifo headline reading came solely from the index’s current assessment component. It climbed to 86.4 to outpace the estimate of 85.4 and last month’s 85.7 result.

The index's expectations measure for the coming six months eased to 87.4 points, just short of the 87.7 reading in March but above the market forecast of 85.4.

“Uncertainty among the companies has increased,” Ifo said. “The German economy is preparing for turbulence.” (LiveSquawk – Continue Reading)

Norges Bank Investment Management — the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world — on Thursday reported a first-quarter loss of 415 billion kroner ($40 billion), citing weakness in the tech sector.

“The quarter has been impacted by significant market fluctuations. Our equity investments had a negative return, largely driven by the tech sector,” CEO Nicolai Tangen said in a statement.

The fund’s value hit 18.53 trillion kroner at the end of March, with 70% of its investment placed in equities — an asset class for which it recorded a loss of 1.6%.

The fund’s market value decreased by 1.215 trillion kroner through the first quarter, largely due to adverse currency movements. (CNBC – Continue Reading)

As President Trump tries to play hardball in his trade war with Xi Jinping, he faces an adversary who has armed China to play a long and potentially painful game in its contest with the U.S.

In the weeks since the U.S. president first slapped sky-high tariffs on China, Beijing has responded with defiance. A spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry posted on X footage from 1953 of Mao Zedong promising to fight to the end against U.S.-led forces in the Korean War. “We are Chinese,” she wrote. “We don’t back down.” (WSJ – Continue Reading)

The US stock market is well past its best days and investors should be prepared to see further declines in the nation’s equities, Treasury bonds as well as the dollar, according to Christopher Wood of Jefferies Financial Group Inc.

The market value of US stocks as a percentage of the MSCI All Country World Index reached its all-time high in late December, said Wood, the firm’s global head of equity strategy. “The US has made an all-time peak,” he said, likening it to the Japanese market in 1989. “The dollar has begun a long-term weakening trend, and that’s going to reduce the US stock market capitalization as percentage of the world.” (Bloomberg – Continue Reading)