Market Views: What next after the global equity rout?

Volatility – more of it – has been a major theme for stock markets in 2018 after last year's benign conditions. The last couple of months have only served to reinforce that, with some major market benchmarks shedding nearly 10% of their value. All told, the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, FTSE 100, Korean Kospi, Nikkei 225, and Chinese CSI 300 indices fell by an average of 8% from October 1 to December 3. A pullback in high-flying technology stocks, continuing US-China trade tens…