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May was marked by significant actions from central banks as they navigated decisions on interest rate adjustments. Sweden‘s central bank cut its rate by 0.25 points to 3.75%, the first reduction in eight years. The Czech Republic, Hungary, and Switzerland also lowered rates, and the European Central Bank followed on June 6th. The Bank of Canada cut its policy rate from 5% to 4.75%, becoming the first G7 central bank to do so.

U.S. stock markets rallied after reports showed 175,000 jobs were added in April, suggesting a cooling labor market. The U.S. annual inflation rate fell to 3.4% in April, supporting investor hopes for rate cuts.

President Joe Biden imposed new tariffs on Chinese exports, including a 100% duty on electric vehicles. AI competition intensified with OpenAI’s GPT4o and Alphabet’s Project Astra, both enhancing voice command capabilities. The energy demands for AI data centers increased carbon emissions, with Microsoft reporting a 31% rise in indirect emissions last year (I am expecting emissions to be even higher for many companies and that’s the reason I want to keep my positions in energy industry). The Nasdaq Composite hit a record high, boosted by Nvidia’s strong earnings. China launched the third phase of its “Big Fund” for semiconductors, raising $47 billion.

May Trades

I opened a position in the IVV index fund, which replicates S&P 500. Additionally, I converted preferential interest rate positions in my pension fund (previously excluded from my investment overview) to bond funds (now included), anticipating further interest rate cuts across markets.

May Performance

My overall percentage gain (MTM) remained consistent with April. Although most of my equities experienced higher returns in May, slight decreases in my pension fund and gold positions, which have a higher weight in my portfolio, offset those gains.