A race against time.
(Reading time: 2 - 3 minutes)
After the business cycle component of the private-wealth stock market indicator delivered a buy signal last week, we received many enquiries from the network. How can it be that the outlook in industry is improving while new orders - an important leading indicator - are declining significantly?
Indeed, new orders do not look good. Since the beginning of '22 they have been showing a clear downward trend, both from abroad and domestically. Especially in real terms - i.e. in terms of pure volume - there is a clear slump (see chart below). And because volume is a decisive factor for capacity utilisation and thus to a large extent also for profit margins - this is a development that can cause concern for investors.
It is interesting that...