An encouraging reporting season brings back confidence.

After a weak previous month, the markets initially struggled to find their footing at the beginning of October. Fears of inflation, rising raw material and energy prices, and supply and personnel bottlenecks continued to worry investors. However, optimism returned to the markets with the start of the 3rd quarter reporting season. Many companies were able to achieve record results in the last quarter – across all sectors – and quite a few raised their own expectations for the full year. The outlook for 2022 is also more confident than it was in the summer. However, the ongoing scarcity of many resources is likely to remain one of the dominant themes for the coming weeks and the volatility of the markets may therefore be high. We remain true to our defensive orientation and are committed to stocks that are less affected by the above problems.