– Recent events this month have challenged the positive scenario that investors were expecting at the beginning of the year. Volatility and noise across markets are bound to continue in the weeks and months ahead. Looking back to February, Global equities lost close to 3% with very contrasting performances across regions (Europe overall positive, USA negative, EM negative,…). On the bonds side, February saw major bond indices gave up some of the recent gains. The Ukraine war marked one year and shows little signs of distension. Overall most funds’ performances were in negative territory for February, nevertheless still positive year to date on the back of a record January.

– On a small positive note, the flow of good news from the hydrogen sector continues unabated: record sales, new projects to produce carbon-free steel using hydrogen, two French groups have signed an agreement to deploy 100 hydrogen stations across Europe. In Spain and Portugal, several green hydrogen production projects have been launched with public or private funding. In Australia, researchers have developed an electrolyser that uses seawater (to date, electrolysers need demineralised water to operate), thus saving freshwater resources and reducing the cost of producing green hydrogen. The hydrogen theme continues to attract more and more investment worldwide, as the transition to a low-carbon world will require huge quantities of green hydrogen.