Investment

March General Markets Comments

by Pierre Mouton

March General Markets Comments

“Prisencolinensinainciusol” – Adriano Celentano, 1972.

In his 1972 legendary « Prisencolinensinainciusol » hit, the mighty Adriano Celentano sings an entire song in an unknown language he invented on that purpose, which is intended to sound like English, while those listening believe it’s an English song and can repeat the lyrics, with the impression of singing in English. An extract of said lyrics goes: “In de col men seivuan, Prisencolinensinainciusol ol rait”, just to give an example.

With all these things happening in the economy, markets and on the geopolitical front, Central Banks pretends they speak like Central Banks, but are they? And we pretend we clearly get their message and understand their language, but are we? We could be in a « Prisencolinensinainciusol » situation, as all the moving parts we, and Central Banks, have to deal with, prevents their message from being clear, and allow us to extract what we want out of it: before this crazy March 2023, it seemed that the only way was up for interest rates in the US and in Europe, at least until real and durable progress was made on the inflation front. Past the SVB and Crédit Suisse debacles, it sounds less clear, although we still hear a lot about rising interest rates and inflation, but with a pinch of salt due to the possible aftermaths of last month’s turmoil.

The resistance of financial markets in general has been surprising: the MSCI World rose 2.83%, the S&P 500 3.51% and the MSCI Emerging Markets 2.73%. Europe fell 0.48%, but this has to be put in the context of a strong euro and the fact that Financials are an important part of European indices. The most striking fact last month was the steep decline in long term bonds (-45 bps for the US 10 year, -36 bps for the 10 year Bund), which highly impacted equity styles: the MSCI World Value lost 1.06% while the MSCI World Growth jumped 6.8% (not to mention the Nasdaq 100, up 9.46% in March and 20.49% year to date). Credit did well (+0.59% for the Itraxx Crossover), and Gold unsurprisingly soared 7.79%, aided by a weak dollar (-2.25% for the DXY) and falling yields.

 

 

 

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Antonio Mira
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, MEMBER OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Antonio Mira joined NS Partners in 2006 as Group Chief Financial Officer. He heads the corporate functions and is involved in coordinating and implementing the decisions of the Executive Committee.
An experienced bank auditor, Antonio started his career in 1995 with Arthur Andersen, where he worked for some 7 years before joining Ernst & Young in 2002 as a Senior Manager.
Antonio is a Swiss chartered accountant and a Business graduate of Lausanne University (HEC).

Sébastien Poiret
DEPUTY HEAD OF WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Sébastien Poiret joined NS Partners in 2008 and manages funds of hedge funds and private client mandates. He also oversees the development of the Group’s offices in Mauritius.

Prior to joining NS Partners, he served as a Trader, Head of Manager research and Portfolio Manager in the USA and Switzerland for a single hedge fund (1998-2004) and for Optimal (2004-2008), Grupo Santander’s fund-of-hedge funds operations.

Sébastien holds a Bachelor’s degree in Corporate Finance from the ESPEME Business School (EDHEC Group) and an MBA in Finance and Economics from the Institute of Business Administration, both in Nice.

Abir Oreibi
BOARD DIRECTOR

Abir Oreibi joined the Board of the NS Partners Group in 2018, where she brings her truly international perspective and rich experience.
Among many other ventures, Abir set up Alibaba.com’s first European office. After living and working in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Bangkok and London, she now lives in Geneva, where she is CEO of Lift Events, an organization that identifies technology trends, their business and social impact through the organization of events and open innovation programs. Issues related to the challenges and opportunities created by new technologies as well as the strategic responses from organizations are at the heart of Lift’s activities.
Abir holds a BA in Political Sciences from the University of Geneva. She is an investor, and member of advisory and innovation boards.

Romain Pidoux, CAIA

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Romain Pidoux joined NS Partners in 2011 and heads the Group’s Risk Management.
He started his financial career in 2005 as Head of Quantitative Analysis for a Swiss Family Office, selecting funds and managing portfolio allocation. In 2008, he switched to the alternative world and joined Peak Partners as hedge funds analyst.
He is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) and holds a Master’s degree in international relations from the Graduate Institute of International Studies at Geneva University.

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