The abrupt fall in markets in September was equally abruptly reversed in October, with Wall Street enjoying its best month of the year, the S&P 500 returning 7.0% and closing the month at an all-time high. Other markets generally made progress, but could not keep pace with the US; the only major market to fall was Japan, down 1.4% in local currency terms (-3.8% in USD terms), reversing some of its strong outperformance of September in the face of uncertainty ahead of the general election on 31 October. Emerging markets continued their run of underperformance, returning 1.0% in USD terms in October compared with 5.7% from developed markets, leaving their year-to-date returns at -0.3% and 19.4% respectively. However, stripping out the top performer of the major markets, the US, from the MSCI World index, and China, the weakest of the large markets, from the MSCI Emerging Markets index, paints a rather different picture, with returns much closer together. China stabilised in October but has fallen by 14.0% so far this year as its problems, some self-inflicted, mounted.