Monthly report January 2025 of the zCapital Swiss Small & Mid Cap Fund (class A)
The fund gained +6.0% in January (SPI Extra +6.7%). We increased our holdings in Emmi, Tecan, Arbonia and SGS and took profits in R&S Group and Burckhardt Compression.
At the beginning of the year, equity markets reacted with losses to strong labour market data and rising US government bond yields. The publication of US inflation figures marked a turning point. European equities in particular began to rally. The Chinese start-up DeepSeek caused a brief tremor in the technology sector. Its newly launched AI model is said to be trained much more cheaply and with less powerful chips than comparable chatbots.
Markets hoped Trump was bluffing, but he has now introduced tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China. A trade war will lead to higher prices for consumers and lower economic growth. It is probably only a matter of time before tariffs are imposed on imports from Europe and Switzerland. Visibility remains low, and Trump's unpredictability could still bring us some surprises.
