After a strong January, the capital markets showed their volatile side in February. The first half of the month saw a continuation of the positive start to the year, although the pace of increase slowed significantly. In the second half of the month, prices slipped again due to recession risks. Europe (EuroStoxx 50) closed in positive territory (+1.94%) thanks to a bank overweight. The US markets, on the other hand, ended in the red (S&P500: -2.45%).

Overall, the latest macroeconomic developments are positive. The global economy is performing better than expected, an energy crisis has failed to materialize and inflation has peaked. To be sure, uncertainty about the key factors for the capital market year 2023 has not yet completely disappeared, as is also shown by the cautious outlooks of companies during the reporting season. But: The trends are pointing in the right direction. So time continues to work in favor of risk assets.

The most important factor for the development of international stock indices remains the policy of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Here, the stock market is looking at the two decisive factors, the U.S. labor market and U.S. inflation. Both factors argue against a change of course in the braking policy in the near future. Accordingly, Fed President Powell made it clear that there would be several more interest rate hikes and that a rate cut in 2023 was out of the question. As a result, the stock markets were more volatile. VIX and VSTOXX rose by around 6 percent over the month.

The Premium Income fund was able to continue its positive trend in this mixed situation and posted a gain of +0.70 percent. This brings the performance since the beginning of the year to +2.12 percent. The losses from the previous year have almost been recouped. The PutWriting strategy and the Relative Value component recorded significant gains. The purchased calls on companies such as Infineon, Salesforce, Nvidia, Rivian and Lucid ended clearly in the plus.