October was a mixed month in financial markets as volatility picked up towards the month’s end. This was driven by factors including the upcoming U.S. presidential election, the Federal Reserve’s interest rate announcement, the UK budget update, and weaker-than-expected earnings guidance from large tech companies Microsoft and Meta. Together, these factors weighed on investor sentiment and led to a reversal, erasing most of the portfolio's gains accumulated through the month, but overall remaining in positive territory. While some of the uncertainty remains high in the near term, the volatility is likely to persist. However, amid the other elements, inflation data trends provided some positive news, with headline inflation returning to target levels in several major economies and growth prospects appearing promising. We expect these fundamental underlying factors to support markets over the medium term. The portfolio maintains its slight underweight to growth assets and overweight to income assets. This stance remains prudent given the ongoing challenge of navigating high valuations in both equity and bond markets.