So looking at how key markets and commodities went in the month and September quarter.
The ASX 200 seriously underperformed, rising 0.2% in the quarter (and the week) and losing more than 1.7% for the month of September.
The Aussie dollar was up 0.8% for the week but lost 0.4% over September and a larger 2.46% for the quarter. It is down nearly 7.5% for the year to date.
The S&P 500 rose 0.6% in September, and up 7.4% for the quarter, which was its best since the March quarter of 2013 (helped by Apple’s 22% rise).
The Dow was up 2.1% this month and enjoyed its first three-month winning streak since January. Up 9.1% for the quarter, it was the Dow’s best quarter since December quarter last year.
The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.7% in September which was its first monthly drop since March. It was up 7.3% for the three months to September and its best quarter since the first quarter of 2017 as well as its ninth consecutive quarterly gain, which will be the longest streak since a two-and-a-half-year run to the end of June in 2015.
The small-cap – skewing Russell 2000 index fell 2.4% last month as big caps had their time in the sun.
Japan’s Topix benchmark rose 4.7% in September, which would be its best month since October 2017. A quarterly gain of 5% was its best this year.
But the more narrowly focused Nikkei index jumped more than 8% for the quarter which more than accounted for the 5.95% year to date performance.
The Euro Stoxx 600 index was up 0.8% for the quarter (outperforming Australia) and up 0.24% for the month and down 0.34% for the week.
Seeing China took the brunt of the rants from President trump on trade, and higher tariffs, its markets did OK – up 0.8% for the week, up 3.5% for the month, but down just under 1% for the quarter.
Hong Kong markets though did worse – down 0.6% for the week, 0.3% for the month and 4.03% for the quarter. Hong Kong interest rates rose this week after the Fed rise because the HK dollar is pegged to the greenback.
Ten-year US Treasury bond yields rose around 19.4 basis points to more than 3%.
That was the biggest monthly rise in the 10-year yield since April and the biggest quarterly rise since the first three months of this year. It ended at 3.061% on Friday in the US.
It rose to just over 3.10% on Wednesday just before the Fed’s rate rise announcement which was the highest the yield has been since May this year.
Brent crude, the main global indicator saw a 6.5% in September, of which 4.94% came last week alone.
Brent was up 5.3% for the quarter, making last week’s gains decisive as oil surged off the back of the decision by Opec and Russia to ignore Donald Trump’s tweets and boost production to put a lid on prices ahead of the US mid-term elections early next month.
West Texas Intermediate futures, the US benchmark crude, saw a 4.7% rise in September, and a rise of 4.3% in the quarter.
Comex December gold rose $US8.80, or 0.7%, to settle at $US1,196.20 an ounce on Friday after hitting a six week low on Friday in the wake of the Fed rate rise.
Based on the most-active contracts, gold lost 0.6% for the week and 0.9% for the month. FactSet data shows that was the sixth straight monthly decline. Based on the most-active contract’s settlement of prices lost 5.5% for the third quarter.
Comex December silver jumped 42.2 cents, or about 3% on Friday, to $US14.712 an ounce. Based on the front-month contracts silver prices rose 2.6% for the week, 0.8% higher for the month, but slumped around 9.7% for the quarter.
And Comex December copper rose 0.8% to $US2.805 at the end on Friday to be down 1.46% for the week, up 5.1% for the month, but off 6.2% for the quarter.
