How optimistic should investors be on Q4?

Q4 PROSPECTS

Lazard Asset Management's Alan Custis considers the prospects for equity markets in the fourth quarter and beyond.

We enter the final quarter of the year in a less precarious position than we found ourselves in the first half of 2012. Though many are likely to continue warning that these are too little too late, the measures taken by the European Central Bank (ECB) in the past three months fulfil much of the criteria of those demanding more far-reaching measures to solve the European debt crisis. The rally in global equity markets in the third quarter, though less fervent in the UK, has also been a response to stimulus measures in the US and China, where macro data has recently disappointed. The effe...