The surge of volatility in global markets late last month was calmed this week, even though Friday’s US employment report threatened to undermine sentiment.

The loss of 190,000 jobs in October, which took the US unemployment rate to 10.2 per cent, proved disappointing, but failed to cause substantial damage, as many financial markets had already been soothed by this week’s three major central bank meetings: the Federal Reserve on Wednesday, and the Bank of England and European Central Bank on Thursday.