Why does my ETF fall when the news isn't about my companies?

When interest rates rise, the value of anything that promises profits in the future changes — and shares are exactly that. A company that will earn money ten years from now is worth less today if, in the meantime, simply holding cash pays more.

That is why a US inflation figure moves European stock markets even when it names not a single European company: it has changed the price of time, and the price of time sits inside the value of every share you own.

If your ETF holds US companies and you measure everything in your home currency, your result depends on two things: what those companies are worth, and what the dollar is worth. The dollar can fall while the companies rise, and you still see red.

It works in reverse for exporters: a strong home currency makes their products dearer abroad, and the market prices that in immediately, long before the quarterly accounts show it.

Companies buy from each other. A chip plant halting on the other side of the world touches carmakers, appliance makers and server builders — even if the story only mentions chips.

It is the hardest channel to see by eye, because it requires knowing not what a company does, but who it depends on. That is exactly the work MarketMind does: following the chain from the event all the way to what you actually own.