Record hot and wet, unprecedentedly sunny and plenty of gray and gray skies: the weather in 2023 will go down in history as the year of extremes. The same applies to financial markets.
The stock market year has been surprisingly good, despite a lot of turbulence and uncertainty. Investors have had to weather wars, geopolitical tensions and a minor banking crisis while grappling with high inflation, rising interest rates, a slowing economy and a tight labor market.
The AEX index recorded an above-average increase of 14 percent this year. For comparison: in 2022, the main index lost 13 percent. AEX started the year with 689 points and finished with 786.82 points.
Financial markets have experienced five seasons of rise and fall in 2023, often due to unexpected developments, disruptions and interest rate expectations. Prices rose in January and February, fell in March, rose to an AEX peak of 794 points from April to July, then dipped again into precipitation from August to October, before finally rising again in November.
Magnificent Seven
Technology companies took the lead in international fairs. Driven by the rise of artificial intelligence, digitalization and social media, many investors have poured money into technology companies and the chip industry.
Wall Street is dominated by big tech companies, particularly the Magnificent Seven, namely Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Apple, Meta (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Threads), Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. The total market value of these seven companies is $12.1 trillion, that is, as much as the economies of Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium combined.
The price increases of these chip companies this year are also quite large: Amazon plus 87 percent, Apple plus 53 percent, Alphabet plus 63 percent, Intel plus 98 percent, Tesla plus 132 percent, Microsoft plus 59 percent, Meta plus 209 percent, and Nvidia plus 252 percent. .
The top five performing stocks on AEX this year include three chip companies: Besi with a 141 percent price increase, ASMI with a 99 percent price increase and ASML with a 35 percent price increase.
Research by De Nederlandsche Bank shows that Dutch households spend their money mostly on Shell (5 billion euros), ASML (2.7 billion euros), ING (2.2 billion euros), Unilever (1.4 billion euros) and ASMI (1.1 billion euros). billion euros) is invested in its shares. investment. and Ahold-Delhaize (1 billion euros).
International trade fairs show the same picture. Only in Asia is there some sort of division; Chinese stock markets (Hong Kong and Shanghai) are in decline, while most other Asian stock markets are experiencing strong growth. The reason for China’s delay is that the Chinese economy is in less good shape due to the previous strict Corona measures, the real estate crisis and deteriorating international trade relations.
Not only have most stock markets posted gains, but the price of gold has risen nearly 13 percent this year. The price of one ounce of gold (31.1 grams) is currently $2,060, which is about the same as in the year of Corona 2020.
The price of gold briefly rose as high as $2,135 in early December, but the market lasted only an hour. The gold price is historically high but also fluctuating; The price of gold drops to $1,820 in February and October.
Although cryptocurrencies fall more into the gambling or gaming category, cryptocurrencies have also survived the disruptions they experienced in 2022. There are approximately 9,000 cryptocurrencies in the market, and only 25 of them are dominant, led by Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether.
The market cap of the entire crypto market stands at $1,650 billion, more than doubling from a year ago. You now have to pay $42,747 for one Bitcoin; this was “only” $16,625 at the beginning of January.
Moneybox
It took some time, but after a long time, the interest on savings came back. Savings interest rates have been at almost zero level for the last five years and the savings pot is being emptied due to rising inflation.
The Netherlands is a savings country and savings accounts are growing every year. All Dutch households combined saved 450.7 billion euros in October, according to De Nederlandsche Bank. The majority (€376.9 billion) can be withdrawn freely, the rest (€73.7 billion) is deposited. Private households have 114.7 billion euros in their current accounts. The Dutch also left their savings in their checking accounts for a long time because their savings accounts had no return.
Moving savings to another bank, often a foreign bank, was more common this year because the interest rate on savings was higher, but was still limited to two to three percent of total savings. Dutch banks also began to gradually increase interest rates in the middle of the year; most banks are currently at 1.5 to 2 percent.
Source: NOS
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
