While the German nation is now in football fever and hoping for a new summer fairytale after the victory against Denmark, there are very threatening developments in other regions of the world. Bread and games have always been a suitable means of distracting people from the real problems of the world. This summer, not only the war in Israel threatens to escalate and spread to Lebanon, but now also the war in Ukraine and both wars could turn into a third world war. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić is warning of a major European war in three months’ time and Hungarian President Orban is also warning that NATO is seeking a war with Russia. In France, there is a threat of a split in the nation and possibly a shift to the right if Le Pen wins the parliamentary elections. Then we will have a new Europe. The USA is already in the midst of an election campaign, where Trump has now presented his new 5-point peace plan for Ukraine. If he wins the election, he will implement it. Trump clearly came out on top in the debate against Biden.
The global stock markets are still ignoring all these risks at the moment, but this may just be the “calm before the storm”. AI shares are still keeping the world’s stock markets up, the only question is for how much longer. The Eastern European stock markets remain relative outperformers among the world’s stock markets, with shares in Kazakhstan performing particularly well (+27%).
Risk-averse investors can buy shares in Kazakhstan directly online via the broker Freedom Finance (Freedom Broker) from Cyprus if they open an account there beforehand, which is easy to do at the following link:
https://freedom24.com/invite_from/2952896 .
Andreas Männicke also gives his assessment of the new opportunities in Eastern Europe in his stock market letter EAST STOCK TRENDS (www.eaststock.de) and in his new EastStockTV video, episode 233 at www.YouTube.com.
Is it a summer fairy tale or a rude awakening?
Germany is in football fever and is now hoping for a summer fairytale. But the people are being distracted. Bread and games have always been a suitable means of distracting people from the real problems. In Israel and Ukraine, the war seems to be escalating. Israel is preparing for a war with Lebanon and NATO is becoming increasingly involved in the war in Ukraine under the leadership of the USA. Macron now wants to send instructors to Ukraine to train Ukrainian soldiers in the use of Western weapons.
America becomes a party to the conflict after the shelling of Crimea with American weapons
America sends drones to Ukraine for reconnaissance. A drone worth USD 850 million was recently shot down by the Russians. American cluster bombs have now been used to bombard a beach in Sevastopol, where 4 civilians died on the beach, including a child. These are also war crimes that must be punished. Putin is furious and now declares the USA to be a party to the conflict. Putin is now also sending intercontinental missiles to the borders of Russia and Belarus. He recommends that all Russians in Germany come to Russia from 1 July. What’s in the offing?
Putin seeks support in Vietnam and North Korea
Putin previously sought support in Vietnam and North Korea and forged strategic partnerships there. North Korea now also wants to send soldiers to Ukraine to support Russia. Putin has now ordered a no-fly zone on the Black Sea, which means that US reconnaissance drones and NATO fighter jets can be shot down immediately. This increases the danger of a direct military conflict between the USA and Russia and thus the risk of a third world war, which the population here does not seem to realise. Instead of hundreds of thousands cheering on Germany at public viewings, hundreds of thousands should be taking to the streets to demand peace and avoid a major European war against Russia.
The battle for a new world order begins: BIRCS Plus on the advance!
Now the battle for a new world order is also beginning, namely BRICS Plus versus G7, which is also a battle for world power and raw materials. Many countries are not satisfied with the USA’s quest for hegemony and exploitation and now prefer to join the BRICS Plus alliance. Turkey, Malaysia and Thailand now want to join the BRICS Plus alliance, as do 40 other countries. With Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, the BRICS now also have major oil and gas producers on board. Everyone in the West should know this: Without raw materials, there can be no technological progress and no AI euphoria! Saudi Arabia has now terminated the 50-year-old petrodollar agreement with the USA, as the BRICS countries are striving for de-dollarisation, which will also have consequences for the USA.
BRICS countries have the raw materials that the West needs to grow
The large mega data centres of the AI companies consume an incredible amount of electricity, but also water to cool the data centres. But so do the Bitcoin miners. The large AI companies are now building their own nuclear reactors in order to have the electricity of the future. However, they also need uranium for this, which could become a very scarce commodity in the future. However, a lot of uranium is located in Kazakhstan and Russia. So who holds the stronger cards in the future? It is probably worth adding uranium stocks such as Kazatomprom from Kazakhstan to your portfolio now. Other commodities such as copper and nickel are needed to manage the energy transition. Gold remains an increasingly “safe haven” in the face of growing geopolitical crises, especially if there is currency turbulence such as in Argentina and Turkey. However, Bitcoin also benefits indirectly from the tensions.
The EU is missing its chance as a peacemaker
The EU has failed to take an independent, sovereign, peacemaking position in the Ukraine war, and so has Germany. They are more or less stooges of the USA, sometimes without realising it. US Vice President Harris made it quite clear at the peace conference: supporting Ukraine is in the “strategic interest” of the USA. And that has always been the case, because this is really a proxy war, i.e. a proxy war between the USA and Russia on Ukrainian soil, in which NATO is now increasingly being drawn in and becoming a party to the war at the request of Zelensky, which Chancellor Scholz was determined to prevent.
The “peace conference” in Switzerland will not bring peace
The USA is still an occupying power vis-à-vis Germany and Germany is behaving in exactly the same way. The EU, and even more so Germany, could play a major role as an impartial peacemaker in the Ukraine war. Switzerland has also given up its neutral role. The peace conference in Switzerland was a farce without China and Russia. Moreover, 20 of the 100 countries did not sign the joint final declaration. It is now high time to present and offer a viable peace plan.
Trump has now presented his peace plan under 5 conditions, which is certainly debatable, but with Joe Biden at the head of the USA there will be no peace any time soon. In the CNN debate, Trump emerged as the clear winner. Tensions between the US and China are also increasing and we can only hope that there will not be another proxy war over China.
Defence companies on the rise
The EU now wants to send Ukraine €50 billion, with the majority of the money coming from the frozen interest on Russia’s currency reserves. Putin describes this as theft. The USA will send Ukraine USD 60 billion as a loan so that Ukraine can buy weapons from the USA, which is a clever move and ultimately only serves to enrich the American defence industry but does not help the war in Ukraine. Rheinmetall is now also receiving ever larger orders from the German government, which ultimately has to be paid for by the taxpayer.
Does the German taxpayer really want a war economy?
But do German taxpayers really want taxpayers’ money to be used in this way and for Germany to become a war economy while industry goes under because of high energy costs or emigrates to the USA, like the copper producer Aurubis from Hamburg recently did? Such a war economy is enormously expensive and time-consuming. The money is then later lacking in other social areas where savings have to be made. In addition, we don’t know exactly where the money and weapons end up in Ukraine and how the money is used. Ukraine is still one of the poorest and most corrupt countries in the world, but is now being courted by the EU. 11 political parties are banned in Ukraine. Critical media are banned in Ukraine. There is no freedom of expression and freedom of the press in Ukraine. The general mobilisation in Ukraine is proceeding very slowly. Selensky lacks the personnel to operate the new weapons.
France faces a fateful election
The European elections not only brought the expected shift to the right and the rejection of the German government, but also prompted French President Macron to dissolve parliament and hold new elections on 30 June and run-off elections on 7 July due to the poor election results (Macron only 15%, Le Pen 30%), which is not without danger for the EU. If Le Pen wins a majority here, it will be difficult for Macron to remain president for another three years. Then not only France but also Europe will have a problem.
World stock markets are negligently ignoring the enormous geopolitical risks
The world’s stock markets have so far ignored the dangers of a major European war and even a world war. In the US, the overvalued AI stocks such as Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple, which together are worth USD 10 trillion, are ensuring that the US stock market remains on a high. The S&P index is now up 15 per cent and the NASDAQ index is even up 20 per cent. Nvidia is now valued at 42 times its turnover and has gained more than USD 2 trillion in market value in just one year. USD in market value within a year just because of the AI euphoria. However, the Dow Jones Industrial Index only managed a gain of 3.7 per cent and the DAX of 8.7 per cent.
Eastern Europe continues to offer outperformance opportunities
Few investors have yet realised that there are much better performance opportunities in Eastern Europe, with shares that are not only growing in terms of turnover, but are also much cheaper and have high dividend yields. Investors have probably only noticed in passing because of the European Football Championship that players from Eastern Europe can play good football, such as those from Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Ukraine and Georgia, some of whom have achieved remarkable results. There have never been so many teams from Eastern Europe at a European Football Championship as this year. Investors should take this as an opportunity to take a look at shares from Eastern Europe.
10 stock exchanges from Eastern Europe are among the 30 best-performing stock exchanges in the world again this year and 8 were even able to outperform the DAX, above all the stock exchanges from Kazakhstan (+27 per cent since the beginning of the year), but also from Slovenia (+26 per cent), Romania (+18 per cent), Hungary (+13 per cent), Bulgaria (13 per cent), Serbia (+13 per cent), Croatia (+10 per cent), Poland (+10 per cent) and even Ukraine (+9 per cent), whereby the Eastern stock exchange indices constructed on the Vienna Stock Exchange were taken as a basis here in euros.
It should not be forgotten that shares from Central Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary) already achieved a performance of over 40 per cent last year and over 30 per cent in Kazakhstan, so this was not a one-off. Shares from Kazakhstan are now a good alternative to shares from Russia, which are no longer tradable for Western investors due to the mutual sanctions. Shares such as the fintech bank Kaspi.kz or the savings bank Halyk Bank are penetrating all areas of life via their super app and are growing very dynamically as a result. The model portfolio share in the East Stock Trends stock market letter (www.eaststock.de) Kaspi.kz has already risen by 13 per cent to a new annual high in just one month following good quarterly figures.
Freedom Broker offers market access to Kazakhstan
Via the broker Freedom Finance from Cyprus, which also presented itself at the Invest trade fair in April 2024 and attracted a lot of interest, you can also buy shares from Kazakhstan directly online, which has the advantage that you can quickly get the sometimes very high dividends into your securities account. Halyk Bank, for example, has a dividend yield of 16% and a return on equity of 34%. At Freedom Broker you also receive interest on your savings account in USD of over 8% and in euros of over 6%. You can easily open an account online at the following link: https://freedom24.com/invite_from/2952896 If you need advice on exchanging Russian ADRs for original shares, Freedom Broker, which also has a branch in Berlin, is the best place to go.
However, investors can still buy Russian ADRs at discount prices in the OTC market via Freedom Broker. Something similar is also possible via the broker Zerich Securities Ltd from Cyprus if you open an account via the following link: https://trade.mind-money.eu A list of tradable Russian ADR is published in the stock market letter EAST STOCK TRENDS (www.eaststock.de). Both brokers also offer participation in lucrative IPOs on Wall Street as well as high returns on overnight and fixed-term deposits.
Inform first, then invest
Find out more now about the background and development of the Ukraine/Russia crisis as well as the future recovery potential of undervalued shares from Eastern Europe. There are also new opportunities in the Baltic states, south-eastern Europe and the CIS republics (Kazakhstan, Georgia), with the respective share indices all up in 2023. In 2023, 12 stock exchanges from Eastern Europe were among the 30 best-performing stock markets in the world, with 5 clearly outperforming the DAX. In 2024, 10 stock exchanges from Eastern Europe outperformed again with a strong gain. It is therefore still worth looking beyond the horizon to Eastern Europe.
Order a trial subscription now (3 issues by e-mail for just €15) to the monthly stock market letter EAST STOCK TRENDS (EST) with another Ukraine/Kazakhstan/Russia special and a dividend special as well as lots of background information and new investment suggestions such as the “Share of the Month” and lucrative certificates at www.eaststock.de, under Stock Market Letter. The last EST was published on 28 June 2024.
TV/radio notes: On 5 February 2024, Andreas Männicke was interviewed by Carola Ferstl on Money Talk about gold, commodities and the new opportunities in Eastern Europe. You can download all radio and TV interviews in the video archive at www.eaststock.de, including the last video in EastStockTV, episode 233. By the way: have you already subscribed to the EastStockTV YouTube channel?
If you are interested in new EastStock seminars “Go East” in Frankfurt/m or other cities, please contact the EST editorial team (www.eaststock.de )
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