What could cause market volatility in the US?

While US stocks reached record levels over the summer months, political turbulence in the US, heightened geopolitical activity - as a result of increasing tensions with North Korea - and investor concerns about the costly impacts of Hurricane Harvey weighed down on markets.

However, strong corporate earnings and improving global growth served to allay the concerns of investors. During the second quarter of 2017, the US economy grew at its strongest pace in more than two years, complemented by improving global growth in the equity market.  Q3 economic growth also received a collective boost from record-high retail sales, robust housing market demand and expansion in the nation's manufacturing and services sectors. BlackRock launches US biotech ETF Against this backdrop, we currently feel the US economy is a supportive one for stocks and there are po...