Historically, October has a reputation for being a pretty volatile time for the markets. The end of September and the beginning of the market’s spookiest month continues to bring plenty of volatility and big swings in the market.
Some of this has come from political reasons at the beginning of the week. The presidential election season kicked off with a bang as President Trump debated Democratic candidate former Vice President Joe Biden. With no clear-cut winner of the debate and exit polls showing a close race, traders were on edge at the start of the week.
Elsewhere, data remained mixed. So far, the post-coronavirus economic recovery has shown slight gains. This continued throughout the week, with key measures of manufacturing, consumer and housing health coming in at mixed levels. Unemployment numbers remained elevated this week.
Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise across the globe. In Europe, the so-called second wave could be beginning. While the U.S. also saw a few spikes during the week. Vaccine news was positive this week, however.
In the end, traders kept stocks moving somewhat higher as they digested the week’s mixed news points.
Be sure to check out our previous Wrap here, when markets saw under whipsaw week.
