Market Week | The slump, Trump’s fear, the leak and the expectation of lower interest rates – HS times the most important economic news of the week

Finland’s economy grew less than expected

In the first quarter of the year, Finland’s gross domestic product grew by 0.2 percent from the level of the previous quarter, tells Statistics Finland.

According to preliminary data published earlier in May the growth would have been as much as 0.5 percent.

Gross domestic product adjusted for working days was 1.2 percent lower than a year ago.

Chief Economist of the Central Chamber of Commerce Jukka Appelqvist according to the report, the growth was still faster than many could have thought.

“The celebrated growth at the beginning of the year slowed right away in the first revision calculation. Still a positive sign, which is better than many would have predicted in advance”, commented Appelqvist in X.

According to preliminary data compiled by Eurostat, the GDP of the entire EU region grew by 0.3 percent in January-March from the previous quarter.

Finland’s big companies hope for Biden’s victory

Finnish large companies have a clear favorite for the winner of the US presidential election: the Democrats Joe Biden.

The matter is clear from the recent Yrityspulssi study by financial group OP. One hundred Finnish companies with a turnover exceeding one hundred million euros responded to a survey carried out by Taloustikkusma in April–May. The research was carried out in the form of telephone interviews.

70 percent of the companies said they consider Joe Biden a Republican from their company’s point of view Donald Trump as a better option for the President of the United States. Only a few percent of respondent companies considered Trump to be a better option for them, and 27 percent of respondents did not take a position on the matter.

“Companies hope for stability in their operating environment, especially after the global turbulence of recent years – uncertainty is always poison for investments”, CEO of OP Yrityspanki Katja Keitaanniemi says in the announcement.

“Biden’s policy and its effects on international trade can be seen to be more predictable. In addition, for example, Biden’s environmental policy is more in line with the EU’s environmental policy and goals than Trump’s.”

The US presidential election will be held in November.

Nordea predicts a noticeable drop in interest rates

The total cost of living is still high, Nordea estimates in its recent housing market review.

According to it, there is a slight positive trend in the housing market as the oversupply of housing starts to dissipate, but prices are expected to recover slowly.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is expected to start interest rate cuts at its June 6 meeting.

The market is pricing the key interest rate to decrease by a total of approximately 1.5 percentage points from the current level of four percent.

Nordea predicts a total decrease of 1.75 percentage points over the next year and a half.

2,500 pages of Google’s secrets were revealed

A document of more than 2,500 pages was leaked from Google, which contains details about the operation of the search engine. The document contains more than 14,000 search engine technical features.

Search engine optimization expert by Rand Fishkin according to the document leak proves that Google experts have been lying for years about the operating principles of the search algorithm.

Google confirmed that the leaked documents are genuine. However, the company’s representative pointed out that the operating principles of the search engine cannot be deduced from the documents, because there is no context in the leaked information. According to Google, the technical documents were also outdated or lacking.

Google’s representative did not comment on the individual technical considerations that industry experts have raised based on the leak.

Cargotec changes its name to Hiab

Cargotec, which manufactures cargo and load handling equipment, continues its planned division. Today, the company has three business areas, Kalmar, Hiab and MacGregor.

The company says it has reached an agreement with MacGregor’s dispute regarding the offshore wind turbine installation project and can now start promoting the company’s sales. The settlement of the dispute causes a negative impact of about 25 million euros on MacGregor’s second quarter operating profit.

Cargotec has said that it intends to split in such a way that Kalmar will be listed on the stock exchange as a separate company at the beginning of July. MacGregor is scheduled to be sold this year. If everything goes according to plan, the board intends to propose to the general meeting that the name of the current Cargotec be changed to Hiab next year.

The company’s current CEO Casimir Lindholm has announced his intention to leave his position at that point. Hiab’s current director would then become the new CEO. The goal for Hiab is that the annual revenue growth should be more than seven percent and that a dividend of 30–50 percent of the profit per share would be distributed.

Varman Murto warns of pension money escaping abroad

If the worse development of the Helsinki Stock Exchange continues for a long time, Finnish pension money will lose its footing and disappear even more abroad and above all to the US market.

This is what Risto Murto, CEO of the employment pension company Varma, predicts.

Until now, Finnish occupational pension companies have been considered important anchor owners in many Finnish companies, i.e. they are the largest owners of the companies.

In this role, they have contributed to keeping companies under domestic ownership.

In the future, the situation may be different if stock market returns in Finland remain weak in the long term.

Lähi-Tapiola’s manager is changing

General Manager of Financial Group Lähi-Tapiola Juha Koponen is leaving his position, the company says in its press release.

According to the release, Koponen will leave his position at the end of June and will act as an advisor to the Lähi-Tapiola Group until the end of this year. According to the release, Koponen is leaving his position on his own decision.

Koponen started as CEO of Lähi-Tapiola in 2020. Before that, he served as CEO of Veikkaus, among other things.

The company says it will start the application process for a new CEO in June.

The operational duties of the CEO of Lähi-Tapiola are temporarily handled by the business director of the group Pekka Antikainen.