S&P DJI Commentary Market Attributes: Europe Index Dashboard

•	Macroeconomic concerns and equity volatility returned during a tough October for the European equity markets. The S&P Europe 350 fell by over 3%, taking a day-to-day lead from Greek government bond prices.
•	Leading the headlines: fears of deflation mounted as the ECB’s stimulus program at the beginning of the month was judged unambitious, mid-month saw Germany cut GDP growth forecasts citing the “geopolitical crisis”; followed by dismal GDP and employment figures from France. Finally, towards month end, 25 of around 130 banks were reported to have failed the ECB’s “stress-test” (not a surprising figure, but slightly worse than expected).
•	However, markets were in recovery mode towards month-end and a final fillip from Bank of Japan cheered investors this morning; the new annual purchasing targets for the BoJ are ¥80 trillion in bonds and ¥3 trillion in ETFs.