Monthly Market Update (October)
October marked the start of the longest period of US government shutdown in history, with the shutdown continuing into November. Geopolitical tensions also flared up between US and China over rare earth controls, causing gold prices to rise to its highest level on October 17. On the policy front, the Fed has issued its second rate cut of the year and promised to end quantitative tightening in December, although its hawkish tone towards a definitive rate cut in December, kept market euphoria at bay. Market expectations for a rate cut in December has now fallen from 82% to ~67% as of the time of writing with 1/3 expecting rates to stay unchanged. These confluence of factors have led to a divergence in performance between equities and crypto markets.