According to a study by UBS, eleven million self-driving taxis are expected to be in use worldwide in 2030. By 2040, that figure will rise to 60 million. The impact on various industries and stock markets will be considerable.

At the beginning of the year, investors are keenly interested in twelve-month forecasts in order to find their investment favourites among the stock markets. "But that doesn't make sense," criticizes Norbert Keimling, head of capital market research at StarCapital, "only those who know how to assess the long-term prospects can identify particularly promising markets. The turn of the year is the wedding of the augurs. The most popular question to them is: How will the DAX perform in the coming year? Norbert Keimling, Head of Capital Market Research at StarCapital, has summarized the forecasts of the leading financial institutions. "The mean value of the DAX estimates for the end of 2020 is 13,999 points, the highest and lowest expectations...

Dear readers, When Oliver Schlick, former Chief Investment Officer of Bayerninvest, and his team led by Professor Rudi Zagst of the Technical University of Munich, translated the turbulence probabilities developed by the capital market seismograph into a stock allocation scheme, the professional pursued an ambitious goal. "The systematic change of the stock weighting analogous to the results of the seismograph should not only be a kind of insurance, i.e. strongly reduce losses in sustained downward movements, but at the same time ensure that upward phases on the stock markets are followed," explains the professional.

Dear readers, The Ifo business climate continued to rise in December. Of particular interest here is the development of business expectations in industry, which we regard as an indicator of sentiment for the global economy and the stock markets. This expectation component has just delivered a buy signal. In October, expectations in the top echelons of industry had improved for the first time after a long period of decline. This was followed by a further slight increase in November and now the third consecutive increase in December. The ifo economic clock still positions the German economy in the downturn quadrant. But the trend is now pointing upwards again. And the ifo traffic light switches to "green" (graphs below).

Dear Readers, Boris Johnson's Conservative Party won the absolute majority in the British Parliament. This has made one of the core risks of recent months more predictable. The House of Commons will now quickly adopt the necessary laws for Britain's withdrawal from the EU on 31 January. What comes after 31 January 2020, however, is less clear. This is when tough and probably long trade agreements with the EU begin. The Lerbach Round is therefore also split when it comes to the impact of the election on the way in which the future Brexit will be made. Half of the experts now expect a higher probability of a soft Brexit. After all, Boris Johnson could now easily get the withdrawal agreement negotiated with the EU through the House of Commons...