Market Updates

Strong corporate earnings have driven U.S. and Japanese equity overweights, with fundamentals taking precedence over valuations, while European opportunities remain selective due to weaker earnings growth, highlighting AI-driven U.S. potential and targeted gains in sectors like European financials.

This week’s focus includes the pivotal US jobs report (Friday) ahead of the final FOMC meeting, key economic data releases across regions, central bank discussions, and market impacts from Trump’s tariff announcements and economic developments in China, signaling mixed global economic sentiment.

Nvidia’s Q3 earnings highlight the rapid AI data center buildout, reflecting the transformative potential of AI, while an active investment approach helps navigate uncertainties and seize opportunities across its buildout, adoption, and transformation phases.

The upcoming week focuses on key economic data, including the Fed’s favoured PCE price index, Eurozone CPI, and US economic updates, alongside geopolitical tensions, policy signals from central banks, and market movements, reflecting global economic uncertainty and shifts.

Persistently high inflation and interest rates, driven by structural forces, lead BlackRock to favor infrastructure equity while remaining cautious on long-term U.S. Treasuries, anticipating rising yields and potential reinforcement of geopolitical and fiscal pressures post-U.S. elections.

This week, market attention will focus on the G20 Summit, key earnings (including Nvidia), and significant economic data like Eurozone and UK CPI, US housing starts, and manufacturing and services PMIs. Last week, US inflation met expectations, while Fed officials signaled a cautious approach to monetary policy amid resilient economic conditions, with China’s October data reflecting improved momentum from stimulus efforts.

At BlackRock’s 2025 Outlook Forum, investment leaders analyzed how to navigate major structural shifts—like U.S. policy uncertainty, AI, and global geopolitics—by updating feasible investment scenarios in response to today’s diverse, high-stakes possibilities.

This week’s market focus includes global inflation data, the COP 29 climate conference, and major earnings reports from Chinese e-commerce giants, along with key US CPI, Eurozone GDP, and UK employment figures, as central banks weigh in on monetary policy and China’s recent measures to support domestic growth gain attention.

Despite expectations for another Federal Reserve rate cut, strong U.S. job and wage data suggest rates may not fall as much as markets anticipate, while the European Central Bank aligns more closely with lower-rate projections, favoring euro area fixed income over U.S. assets.

The first week of November brings key economic data releases and central bank decisions, with markets watching for a potential Fed rate cut and Bank of England easing, amid concerns over weak industrial output in Germany and France, while the looming U.S. presidential election remains the primary driver of market sentiment.