Brummer Multi-Strategy monthly commentary July 2025

Markets

July saw global equity markets climb to new highs amid strong earnings, resilient economic data, and easing trade tensions, while central bank signals, currency shifts, and commodity price moves added complexity across FX, bonds, and commodities. US equities continued their strong performance from June as Q2 earnings reports came in above expectations, particularly in the AI space, and a strong June jobs report drove the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 to new all-time highs. Since the lows of April 8th, the indices have climbed over 27 and 36 per cent respectively, indicating a renewed confidence in US markets. European equities saw more mixed results, however. In mainland Europe, equities saw initial modest gains that waned towards the end of the month as optimism for EU-favourable trade deals with the US soured somewhat. The UK meanwhile saw very strong performance on their equity markets as they finalised their trade deal with the US, alleviating uncertainty and improving risk sentiment. Eastwards, Japanese equities saw fluctuating performance as investors weighed the potential turmoil of prolonged trade tensions and the upcoming upper house election while Chinese equities rallied somewhat as exports proved resilience despite US tariffs. Bond markets moved in the opposite direction in July, as bond yields moved higher overall. US treasury yields climbed as Powell delivered hawkish remarks and left rates unchanged with European and Japanese bond yields following suit. As a result of the hawkish remarks from the Fed along with public perception that the US has the upper hand in their trade negotiations, the US dollar strengthened somewhat against a basket of major currencies, including but not limited to the British Pound, Euro and Japanese Yen. Commodity markets saw quite a lot of volatility in July. For instance, oil prices ended flat after being tugged on opposite ends by geopolitical tensions and OPEC+ announcing increased production. Gold prices fluctuated during the month and ended flat while copper saw a dramatic drop in price as Trump shocked the market by excluding refined copper products from the 50 per cent copper tariffs, effective August 1st. Instead, the tariffs will cover semi-finished products such as copper wiring and pipes but will exclude the most imported forms of copper that includes ores, cathodes and concentrates. This caused copper prices to plummet more than 20 per cent in mere minutes and more since the announcement.

Brummer Multi-Strategy

All in all, BMS had a solid month of performance in July with every strategy bucket contributing positively to performance.

Long/short equity proved the strongest contributing strategy bucket in July as quarterly earnings-related alpha continued to be generated. In US TMT, significant alpha was generated in a multitude of subsectors, with the standouts being names in financial services, software, semiconductors and consumer services. Detractors included media & entertainment, technology hardware as well as in capital goods. Among global healthcare sectors, significant contribution to performance came from pharmaceuticals, biotech & life sciences with the gains being somewhat offset by positioning in healthcare equipment. The listed real estate sector had few detractors, as gains were realised across all geographic regions, with the standouts being real estate names in Europe.

The systematic trend following bucket also contributed somewhat to performance this month, although performance diverged across markets. On developed markets, mild gains were realised as positioning in commodities and equity indices were offset by losses in fixed income and FX. On alternative markets, the same could not be said as small gains in credits were outweighed by losses in commodities, fixed income, FX and equity indices.

Systematic macro delivered strong performance, with all subsectors contributing positively. The largest gains were driven by relative value positioning in commodities such as fossil fuels and equity positioning in UK and Japanese equities. 

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