The US stock market delivered a record-beating performance in October, with the S&P 500 index hitting fresh highs.

This came after the news of apparent progress in US/China trade talks and better-than-expected company earnings reports. Markets were also buoyed by a third Federal Reserve interest rate cut this year – although the suggestion of a pause before future rate cuts came as a surprise. Upcoming macroeconomic reports will be watched closely for any clues as to the length of the pause.

On this side of the Atlantic, these returns were dampened by sterling strengthening against the US dollar (meaning profits are worth less in pounds). The pound rose after the prospect of a Halloween no-deal Brexit was averted by the European Union’s proposal of a three-month ‘flextension’. On the back of this development, and with the UK market currently looking cheap and under-owned, we have upgraded our outlook on the UK from ‘underweight’ to ‘neutral’. We have therefore slightly increased the UK exposure in our funds.

Read more about how Nathan Sweeney, Senior Investment Manager, positioned the Architas Multi-Asset Active Fund range last month in a handy two-page PDF.