Risk

The risk concentration index (RCI) for a diversified portfolio had been on a downtrend since the start of 2014. The latest risk aversion spell has brought this to an end. This index, which measures the diversity of risk sources, peaked when markets were mainly guided by the perception of the Chinese risk and by the re-emergence of a systematic risk.

A rare market shakeout in which all major asset classes fell over the past six months is not the ‘new normal’, says Lukas Daalder, Chief Investment Officer for Robeco Investment Solutions.

Investors are expressing growing skepticism that the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) will raise rates this year amid fragility in the global economy and earnings, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey for October.

Scope Ratings noted that France is one of the wealthiest economies in the world, displaying a highly diversified economic structure, adding that it has weathered the financial and sovereign crisis reasonably well.

Returns on risk-weighted assets compiled by SNL Financial show that European banks are beginning to recover after a long period in the wilderness.