European markets made healthy gains in July on the back of good second-quarter company earnings reports. Trade tensions between the US and Europe eased in the month, helping Eurozone equities to become one of the best performing markets. Global equity markets also saw gains of more than 1% as fears over a trade war abated. Global and Sterling corporate bonds made small gains in July, but remain negative for the year to date. For GBP, there has been a rise of more than 5 basis points in interest rates across the term structure since last month. For European indices, realised volatility declined in July to reach 10% for the Euro Stoxx. S&P volatility remained below 10% during the month. There was a slight decline in volatility risk premium for all indices.
