January 2026

At the beginning of 2026, the European stock market resumed its upward trend (+3.2%) while the US indices denominated in Euro remained flat: the S&P 500 in Euro ended the month at +0.3% and the Nasdaq at -0.2%.

The year started off with a bang, with a vigorous Donald Trump ready to invade Greenland, a sovereign territory of a NATO ally, before coming to his senses, having deeply traumatized Europeans along the way. The unpredictable and, to say the least, provocative nature of the White House occupant’s second term led to some consequences for financial markets, notably a growing distrust of the American currency, the all-powerful US Dollar. Gold and silver were indeed on a steep acceleration path in January, which could be interpreted as a “run”, meaning a panic-driven distrust of paper money, until Trump appointed Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve chairman and once again surprised everyone, this time with the wisdom of his decision.
He indeed has an almost perfect CV to oversee this venerable institution. He was notably a member of the central bank’s board of governors from 2006 to 2011 and was one of the key players during the greatest financial crisis experienced since 1929, before resigning in 2011 in opposition to the quantitative easing plans, that is, asset purchases on the open market aimed at flooding it with liquidity. These measures followed one after another even though the crisis was already behind us, and Kevin Warsh believed that banks no longer needed them, a point on which he may not have been wrong. He sometimes has a reputation as a monetary “hawk,” although his mentor and partner, the legendary investor Stanley Druckenmiller, strongly disputes this. In any case, he is undeniably endowed with a true intellectual backbone and a strong character.
Everything suggests that he managed to win over Trump by promising rapid cuts in key interest rates in exchange for a plan to reduce the Fed’s balance sheet, which has never returned to its pre-2007 size, even in relative terms.
Although this appointment caused some volatility in our portfolios for a few sessions, particularly in our holdings in sectors exposed to commodities and those that had recently experienced a lot of “momentum,” meaning strong positive price dynamics during the month, we are convinced that this choice is excellent news. Kevin Warsh is a highly skilled finance professional, endowed with great intelligence, youthful energy combined with unparalleled experience.
As Churchill purportedly said, Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted. Once again, they did not fail to live up to their reputation!

The Clartan funds once again experienced mixed performances in January. Valeurs rose by +6.1% while Europe and Ethos both posted +0.6%. Patrimoine increased slightly by +0.4%, Flexible by +1.0%, and Multimanagers by +1.7%.