The Week Ahead

Over the last 3 quarters equities have been hit hard with the S&P posting its third negative quarter, now being down -25.28% since the start of the year. In total, more than $36 Trillion dollars in value have been lost in equities and bonds over these last 9 months. Q4 still presents various challenges for risk assets, as central banks around the world continue pushing towards more restrictive monetary policies, with rates not expected to peak until early 2023.

OPEC+ members will be meeting in Austria on the 5th of October for their first in person meeting since March 2020, changing their plan for an original video-conference. This meeting comes at the backdrop of a steep decline in global energy prices, which puts more pressure on OPEC+ to start curtailing production in order to stabilize energy prices. Some early reports indicate that the cuts would be larger than 1m b/d.

The UK Conservative Party Conference is set to begin on the 2nd of October and last until the 5th, this next week. The UK mini budget proposed by Liz Truss is set to be a key issue at the conference. With the GBP posting a volatile week, reaching a new record low against the USD, but later recovering and ending the week higher 2.9%. This after the BOE intervened in the GILT markets last week, launching a £65bn intervention to calm markets.