Worst Quarter: Investors brace for stocks to fall again

Investors say they are bracing for another leg down in the S&P 500 stock index despite its positive showing last week

NEW YORK: The global market volatility of the past month that sent US stocks to their worst quarter in four years shows no signs of letting up just because the calendar turned to October. Investors say they are bracing for another leg down in the S&P 500 stock index despite its positive showing last week by increasing cash and other defensive positions in their portfolios. With the backdrop of slowing jobs growth in the US and the collapse of global commodity prices, third quarter corporate results will take on a heightened significance when companies begin reporting them next week, analysts said. Overall, corporate earnings are expected to fall by 4.1%. A weaker than expected US employment report for September on Friday diminished inflation expectations, and the prospects for a dim corporate earnings season, are all factors fanning worries that the economic recovery could be derailed. Investors pulled $22 billion out of equity funds in the third quarter, while putting a record $17 billion into Treasury funds.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2015.

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