Market development – Q1 2024

19.04.2024

In Q1 2024, global equities reported excellent returns. As a Danish investor, you could also benefit from a rising US dollar relative to Danish kroner.
The reason behind the positive development in the equity markets must be found, among other things, in confidence in growth progress and continued high expectations for the potential of artificial intelligence and weight-loss medication. At the beginning of 2024, both NVIDIA (artificial intelligence) and Novo Nordisk (weight-loss medication) showed increase and thus continued their positive trend from 2023.
The trend in early 2024 was rising interest rates resulting in headwinds to bonds which therefore delivered more modest returns.
Market expectations and the signals from the Federal Reserve (Fed) and the European Central Bank (ECB) are still that inflation is under control and interest rates can be lowered later in 2024.

Figure 1: Development of equities and bonds