After a somewhat soggy start to a month traditionally known as "Uptober", let's take a stroll down memory lane and recall the best performing assets of September, Q3 and 2024 YTD.
Markets put in a strong performance over Q3, with global equities and bonds both advancing. But, as Deutsche Bank's Henry Allen writes, the headline numbers masked some massive turmoil in the middle of the quarter, as fears of a US recession, the unwinding of the yen carry trade and questions about tech valuations all led to a sizeable risk-off move. At one point, the VIX index of volatility even hit its highest intraday level since March 2020, at the height of the initial wave of the pandemic. But this turmoil proved remarkably brief, and a dovish pivot from central banks (including a 50bp rate cut from the Fed), along with stronger US data and fresh China stimulus led to a significant recovery. In fact by the end of Q3, the S&P 500 had posted its strongest YTD performance of the 21st century so far...
