Markets fall but investors “not throwing in the towel”

Markets fell on Tuesday.

The S&P 500 fell 1.2 percent, its steepest fall since 11 October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite fell 1.1 percent and 1.8 percent respectively, their worst declines since September.

Elsewhere, the STOXX Europe 600 fell 0.5 percent and the Nikkei 225 fell 0.3 percent although most other Asian markets rose.

Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank, said that investors have lost some of their enthusiasm over President Donald Trump as “a lot of his policies got mired in the legislative process”.

Nevertheless, analysts appear to remain sanguine about stocks.

“Investors are not throwing in the towel but they are resetting their expectations,” said Ablin.

“This doesn’t feel like a selloff, though, at least not at this point,” said Steve Sosnick, equity-risk manager at Timber Hill/Interactive Brokers Group.

A recent survey of global fund managers by Bank of America Merrill Lynch showed that most respondents thought that higher interest rates will be the most likely catalyst to end the bull market but for now, Treasury yields remain too low to hurt stocks.