Recovery will be erratic through 2003

By Alex Ingham, head of North America equities at Aberdeen Asset Management The second quarter saw the S&P 500 index produce its best quarterly return since the fourth quarter of 1998 as investors drove a sharp post-war relief rally. While the market was buoyed by the end of the war in Iraq, investors also factored in an improving economic and corporate environment during the second half of the year. This was led by a bounce back in industrial production and capital spending. Coupled to this is the accommodative behaviour of the Federal Reserve, which has recently cut interes...