Monthly round-up - April 2025 – Make Volatility Great Again

Buffeted by the announcements on US trade tariffs, the equity markets have returned to their starting point of the beginning of April; excluding forex, the US has fared better than Europe and Europe better than China. Both the dollar and the yuan fell against the euro. 10-year sovereign yields fell but less than the 2-year yield over the month, continuing to steepen the yield curve. The end of the earnings season, which has been relatively reassuring so far, and the effective arrival in power of Friedrich Merz should see European equities remain on an uptrend in May. Before the approach of the end of the 90-day suspension of US tariffs comes back to rattle the market.