October 31, Hallowe’en, looks as though it could become a doubly ominous date for world equities. It was on that date in 2007 that the main world equity indices peaked.

Since then, they have endured a bear market, and there is no end in sight. By October 3, the end of the chaotic week in which the US House of Representatives needed two votes to pass the US Treasury’s rescue plan for mortgage-backed securities, the S&P 500, the world’s most closely tracked equity index, had fallen 32.1 per cent from its peak.