The difficulty of calling the fortunes of stocks so far in 2025 has been evident in the performance of Shares’ key selections for the year, as we discuss in a feature in this week’s issue.

Hands up, we haven’t covered ourselves in glory so far, even though, in our defence, the market environment has been testing. There have been some notable exceptions, and we’re hopeful of better in the coming months. In general, now is a good opportunity to take stock as we approach the halfway point of the year.

Anyone who took their eyes off the MSCI World in December and looked again today might assume nearly six months of relatively serene progress, with the global index trading modestly higher.

However, as most of us will know that doesn’t tell anything like the full story with the markets enduring a period of significant volatility in early April when president Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs were announced, before a barnstorming recovery in the interim.

Martin Gamble looks at the latest market moves in this week’s News section.

The table below shows which indices have performed best since the start of 2025, with Germany the obvious stand-out. The Hang Seng is also a notable outperformer as investors have reacted to depressed valuations and improved sentiment towards Chinese technology names in the wake of the Deepseek AI breakthrough and a softer tone towards the sector from Beijing.

While US stocks have recovered their material losses from earlier in the year they are still notable laggards as investors react to the disruption created by major shifts in US policy under the new administration. Japanese and domestic Chinese stocks have also really struggled amid concern over the impact of tariffs and, for the latter, the strength of the yen as its safe-haven credentials come to the fore.

At a stock level, European defence names have notably starred as the market reacts to a potential step-change in military spending on the continent. Precious metals miners have also found favour as gold prices have reached new record levels.

This brief review doesn’t encompass in any detail the movements in commodity prices, bond markets and currencies. There isn’t scope to do that justice here, but rest assured we will be bringing you analysis and insight into the whole spread of financial markets in the months ahead.

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