Equities rallied in October, following a poor run throughout August and September. It remains to be seen if this is the start of a structural upward movement or merely a rebound from oversold levels. In Europe, the European Central Bank (ECB) raised rates by another 75bps to bring the main policy rate to 1.5%. Inflation remains elevated across the currency bloc. Further rate hikes from key central banks are due in the early part of November as inflation remains stubbornly high.
Business activity continues to slow across the developed world, with more indicators suggesting a recession will be forthcoming. The Q3 earnings season, so far, has generally been well received, despite some high-profile misses in the tech sector. Margins have held up reasonably well, but more companies are turning pessimistic in relation to their forward guidance.
In China, the 20th Communist Party Congress concluded with President Xi Jinping re-elected as General Secretary for a third five-year term. Markets reacted negatively to the consolidation of power. Within the UK, markets entered the movement in a volatile fashion but calmed throughout the period as Liz Truss resigned, becoming the shortest-serving PM in UK history.
For full details of last month's market movements you can download our monthly reports below.
In this investment podcast recorded on November 8th 2022, we speak about recent market movements and Zurich Investments current positioning and outlook. This month we also take a look at the Prisma 4 fund, which forms part of the Zurich Prisma multi-asset fund range. All the information contained in this podcast was accurate at the time of recording.
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