Economy

Today's stock market
Stock market crash in Norway – over 130 billion up in smoke

The Oslo Stock Exchange, led by several major oil companies, is starting the week off on a heavy note after the weekend's peace agreement between the US and Iran, writes Dagens Næringsliv.

In retail trading, the stock market is down 1.7 percent, thus going against the tide in Europe where there is a relief rally in several places. On the corporate front, oil giant Equinor is down 6.5 percent and shipping company Aker and oil and gas company Vår Energi are down by the same amount.

The declines mean that stock market values ​​equivalent to 128 billion kronor have been erased during the day.

Stock market sentiment
Strategists see buying opportunity in the peace rally: Significant

The peace agreement could be the start of a trend with falling interest rates and generate new stock market winners. This is what Danske Bank's equity strategist Molly Guggenheimer tells Affärsvärlden.

Lower energy prices and inflation are expected to benefit real estate companies and so-called serial acquirers, among others, she reasons. Medtech and grocery companies could also be winners, says Guggenheimer, who highlights Essity and AAK.

– For the stock market as a whole, the peace agreement is not very important, but for certain sectors it is very significant, she says.

SEB's equity strategist Stefan Cederberg instead points to cyclically sensitive companies and highlights the Swedish truck giant Volvo.

– A lower oil price will be directly positive for their customers, he tells EFN. 

Microsoft's future
After the crash – shareholders sue Microsoft

Shareholders are suing Microsoft for misleading the market and inflating the share price. This is reported by Reuters.

Investors claim in the class action that the company has not given a fair picture of the declining growth in the Azure cloud service, as well as the company's growing costs around AI.

The day after the company's latest report at the end of January, the share price fell 10 percent, wiping out $357 billion in market value.

The accusations are directed at several members of Microsoft's management, including CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood.

Swedish inflation
The Riksbank is expected to wait and see despite cloudy inflation data

Experts expect the Riksbank to announce on Wednesday that the key interest rate will be left unchanged at 1.75 percent, writes TT.

What complicates the situation somewhat is that the halved food VAT and the reduced fuel tax make it a little more difficult to interpret the inflation figures.

- You could say that this makes the water a little more cloudy. It is a little more difficult to see exactly what underlying inflation is, says SEB's fixed income strategist Amanda Sundström to TT.

Sundström still believes that this should not be a problem for the Riksbank and that underlying inflation is low. She is supported in this reasoning by Albin Kainelainen, Director General of the National Institute of Economic Research.

Most analysts expect that it will be until the end of 2026 or 2027 before an interest rate increase comes.