Market Pulse - October 2024
- Monthly Market Pulse
- 07.11.24
Key themes
- In October, global stock markets were weighed down by the potential for less monetary easing than previously expected, and by disappointing third quarter earnings from large tech companies.
- Concerns around the potential for higher inflation, amid strong growth, particularly in the US, pushed bond yields higher.
- US data continued to show economic strength, while there were some mixed signals in the Eurozone. Overall, markets were led to expect less monetary easing from the Federal Reserve (Fed), while the European Central Bank (ECB) guided for further rate cuts amid growth concerns.
Markets snapshot
- The MSCI All Country World index fell by 1.1% (+0.5% in euro terms) over October.
- The MSCI USA fell by 0.7% (+2.0% in euros).
- Emerging markets (EM) stocks were weighed down by disappointment around China’s stimulus measures. The MSCI EM index fell by 2.8% (-1.6% in euros),
- Eurozone government bond returns were negative as interest-rate carry failed to offset rising yields, with that of the 10-year German bund up by 30 basis points (bps) over the month at 2.42%. The ICE BofA 5+ Year Euro Government bond index returned -1.4%.
- Corporate bonds were dragged lower by rising yields. European investment grade corporate bonds and global high yield bonds both returned -0.4% over October.