April followed a similar narrative to the previous quarter, with negative sentiment persisting from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, inflation standing at highest levels in decades, and concerns over increasingly hawkish monetary policy from central banks. The S&P 500 and Euro STOXX 50 finished the month down by 8.7% and 2.0% respectively, whereas the FTSE 100 finished the month up by 0.7%. The FTSE 100 has been a relative outperformer, aided by strong performance in its energy and materials constituents off the back of the inflationary and rising interest rate environment, whereas the S&P 500 continues to be pulled down by its heavy technology weighting. In fixed income markets, yields on US, UK and German 10-year bonds increased by 60, 30 and 39 basis points respectively. The pound fell by 4.3% against the US dollar and 4.7% against the euro.
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