Stock markets will remain volatile for the next few months despite their July rebound, according to UBS
- UBS warned investors that market volatility will likely continue over the next few months.
- Stocks rebounded in July, with the S&P 500 rallying over 9% to erase some of its losses from this year.
UBS believes the stock market could remain volatile for the next few months as fresh batches of economic data lead to heightened uncertainty levels.
The $1.1 trillion asset manager's chief investment officer Mark Haefele said that July's market rebound was unlikely to prove long-lasting in a recent research note.
"We advise investors against reading too much into July's somewhat more positive picture," he said. "There remains far too much uncertainty and markets may stay choppy in the coming months."
The S&P 500 and MSCI World Index rallied 9.1% and 6.9% respectively last month, with investors buoyed particularly by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's comments that the US central bank will take a data-driven approach to raising interest rates.
But Haefele said that August and September could prove significantly more uncertain, with the Fed set to receive a significant amount of new data before its next meeting.
"There's nearly two months of economic data between now and the next Federal Open Market Committee meeting on 20–21 September for the markets to digest," he said. "So, we remain neutral on equities."
Wall Street tends to view Haefele as one of banking's more bullish investing chiefs. He recently said that investors should be encouraged by the ongoing earnings season, which has seen stocks like Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft rally after delivering strong quarterly results.