Stock markets survive turbulent October

Stocks rose last week, with stock indices in the United States in particular hitting new all-time highs.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 2.7 percent last week to 2,018.05 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 3.5 percent to 17,390.52, both achieving new record highs. The STOXX Europe 600 Index rose 2.9 percent while the MSCI All-Country Asia Pacific Index rose 3.1 percent.

Stock markets slipped on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve announced the end of its bond-buying programme but this event was offset by the announcement from the Bank of Japan on Friday that it was raising its annual target for asset purchases to around 80 trillion yen from 60-70 trillion yen, which helped boost stocks at the end of the week.

The diverging moves from the US and Japanese central banks highlight the divergence in the direction of their economies. While a report last week showed that the US economy grew at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the third quarter, the BoJ's economic outlook report released shortly after its monetary policy decision last week showed that it had lowered its growth forecast to 0.5 percent for the fiscal year ending March 2015 from 1.0 percent previously.

The rally in stocks last week means that markets have mostly survived October relatively unscathed. The S&P 500 rose 2.3 in October and the MSCI All-Country Asia Pacific Index rose 1.1 percent.

Europe was the only major region to see stocks fall, with the STOXX Europe 600 declining 1.8 percent.