AEX or AI?
The Amsterdam Stock Exchange (AEX) showed little overall movement between 22 May and 29 May 2026, hovering around 1,040 points. Yet a lot was happening behind the scenes: artificial intelligence (AI) was once again a hot topic this trading week.
The business community is seeing the costs of using AI rise dramatically. Companies are having AI perform more complex tasks (using so-called ‘agents’) to boost productivity. But exactly what this delivers for them often remains unclear. Prosus, which owns meal delivery service Just Eat Takeaway among other businesses, has now built 60,000 agents, but is set to scale that number back to around 5,000. Consultancy firm KPMG published a study this week on AI usage across 1,200 companies worldwide. Only 8% of them had already seen a clear return on their investments in the technology.
Last week, the AEX closed at 1,045 points. At the time of writing, on Friday morning, the AEX stood at 1,039 points: a decline of 0.5%.
Top gainers and losers in the AEX
The takeover battle surrounding AkzoNobel was particularly notable, after the company rejected a EUR 12 billion bid from Nippon Paint and Sherwin-Williams. The paint manufacturer announced this on Wednesday before the market opened. Immediately after the opening, shares in AkzoNobel rose sharply, with the increase climbing further to 19.5% over the course of the day. Good news, although the share price stood at EUR 105 five years ago and is now around EUR 64.
Flow Traders had to contend with a negative analyst report and fell by 14% on Wednesday. The company’s targets set at the previous investor day might not be met.
Among the major shares in the AEX index, Aegon fell the most on Thursday (-3%). Before the market opened, it was announced that the Aegon association is splitting itself into two new entities: a charitable foundation and an association that, as a major shareholder, will hold a stake of approximately 18% in Aegon. The split is intended to prepare the company for the eventual relocation of its Amsterdam stock market listing to the US.
Adyen also declined on Thursday, after it announced the sudden departure of its CFO on Wednesday after the market closed.
Noteworthy news
On Whit Monday, trading continued as usual on the Damrak, despite the fact that many Dutch people had the day off. Many people therefore may not have noticed that the Italian stock market (FTSE MIB) broke its 2000 record high after 26 years. This record high is typical of this equity market year. The rise is mainly driven by the semiconductor sector (STMicroelectronics, boosted by AI) and the energy sector (Saipem and Eni, driven by the Iran conflict). Something similar is the case in Amsterdam. The three biggest gainers in 2026 so far are BE Semiconductors, ASM International and ASML, with Shell, ABN AMRO and ING also featuring prominently in the top ten. Meanwhile, the South Korean benchmark index, driven by chip giants Samsung and SK Hynix, gained almost 100% so far this year. The gains of the S&P 500 Index (+9%) and the Stoxx 600 (+6.5%) pale in comparison.
Kevin Warsh was sworn in last Friday as the new Chair of the Federal Reserve, succeeding Jerome Powell. Warsh takes office at a time when the central bank’s independence is under pressure, against a backdrop of rising government debt (higher spending on defence and other areas, leading to higher long-term interest rates) and political pressure to cut short-term interest rates while inflation rises. Even financial markets have shifted their expectations for the US from interest rate cuts to a possible rate hike this year.
It was also decided this week that DigiD will not fall into foreign hands. KPN will be launching a European cloud service for the Dutch market in partnership with tech firm Schwarz Digits. Schwarz Digits is the IT and digital division of Schwarz Group, the German parent company of supermarket chain Lidl. The new service will be hosted in KPN’s data centres in the Netherlands.
Outlook for the coming week
The Iran conflict (or a potential resolution to it) and the AI and semiconductor industries are expected to continue dominating the news in the coming period. This will affect equity market valuations, energy prices and thus inflation – and ultimately growth forecasts. On Monday 1 June, the eurozone and the US will publish their PMI figures. These figures reflect how businesses view the future. On Tuesday 2 June, eurozone inflation (via the EU CPI) will be announced, and finally, next week we will hear about the state of the US labour market.