Our funds ended the year with good performances relative to their benchmark indices. Global Stars has increased by approximately 33% in 2024. Dagens Industri highlighted Global Stars as one of the best funds in its category based on 3-month performance. Morningstar ranks Global Stars as one of the top global funds based on year-to-date performance in its category. To read more – check out our monthly reports below.
December stock markets: US tech in focus and Asian successes
During December, global stock markets were characterized by increased volatility. As expected, central banks around the world continued to cut interest rates, but some concerns arose when the Fed’s new interest rate path signaled fewer cuts than expected over the coming year. This led to some markets losing momentum ahead of the holiday season. Nevertheless, the hitherto dominant US technology sector continued to outperform, resulting in a marginal 0.4% gain for the tech-heavy Nasdaq, while the S&P 500 recorded a -2.5% decline .
In Asia, industrial production data from China, which showed the strongest expansion since February 2022, along with indications of increased stimulus in 2025, contributed to gains in both the Hong Kong and Japanese markets. These ended the month on top with gains of 3.5% and 4.4% respectively. In the European market, the month started with steady gains driven by strong performance in France and Germany, however, the Stoxx Europe 600 ended with a decline of 0.5%.
Electric car manufacturer Tesla continued to rise sharply in the wake of Trump’s election victory, which is expected to lead to more deregulation for self-driving cars, strengthening Tesla’s software offering. The stock ended the month at +17%. Google’s parent company Alphabet also rose 12% during the month. The rise was driven by the launch of an updated version of their competing language model to Chat GPT, called Gemini. In addition, the company unveiled an advanced chip for quantum computers, which enables quantum computing significantly faster than today’s supercomputers. Furthermore, strong performance was noted in the luxury company Hermes, which rose 12% in December. Luxury conglomerate LVMH also recovered, supported by expectations of upcoming Chinese stimulus measures that are expected to benefit the company’s sales in the Asian market; the share rose 7% during the month.
In the Nordic region, Hexagon showed a strong performance with an increase of almost 14% during the month. Among other things, following the news that Björn Rosengren, former successful CEO of ABB, will take over as vice chairman of Hexagon’s board next year. Jewelry company Pandora continued its strong performance of 16% after updating its financial targets the month before.
Climate solutions company Munters posted a strong performance during the month, mainly driven by continued high demand for the company’s advanced cooling solutions to optimize performance and security in data centers while Novo Nordisk performed weakly after reporting less weight loss than expected for its upcoming obesity drug Cagrisema. Sherwin-Williams and the private equity firm Blackstone also performed weakly during the month. A common denominator for both is that they are negatively affected by an expected higher interest rate level in the US.
