Extending the risk-on/risk-off phase seen since mid-February, equity markets maintained the trend and closed the month with dispersed results (with Europe in negative territory and the United States slightly positive). Despite the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, at the beginning of the month the positive effect of the hike in Brent crude prices on US inflation and cyclical sectors enabled the equity indices to rise modestly. Given this, QuAM 10's strategy took advantage of its equity allocation which was slanted towards European sector funds. Small and large caps were better represented in the portfolio and contributed to good performance over this period. However, in the second part of May, a disappointing series of economic numbers on Europe (including retail sales and the PMI), as well as Italy having its main anti-establishment parties sworn in to government, impacted most equity indices. The coalition formed between two parties (the Northern League and the Five Star Movement) tried to name the Eurosceptic Paolo Savona as Minister of Finance, triggering a risk-off phase on the market. In the United States, pressure for a rate hike was eased by the agreement reached between China and the United States on reducing the trade deficit between their two countries. Given this rapid turn-around on the equity markets and widening interest rate spreads (with the 10-year differential between the Italian bond and the German bund at 2.9%, the highest level reached since 2013), the methodology delivered some of its profits before raising exposure to monetary assets and European equities, at the expense of bond funds.