Month: November 2018

October is a month that has a stock market reputation for volatility and in 2018 – at least in this sense – it did not disappoint. Hindsight watchers will point to the nervous tone of the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook document concerning higher interest rates and global trade angst as the straw that broke the camel’s back, but in reality a slow rotation in favour of more defensive equity market names had already been quietly occurring over the summer.

A Budget in October is unusual, but there are two main reasons why the Chancellor’s performance marginally pre-empted Halloween this year. The first is that we are now in the new cycle of Autumn Budgets and Spring Statements, the première of the latter having been made on 13 March.