For once, Investors’ focus over the next couple of weeks has nothing to do with interest rates or macro events but politics.

In the UK, by the time Shares goes to press we will have been treated to the first Labour Budget in 14 years.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said in order to fill the ‘black hole’ left by the previous government the Treasury needs to raise around £22 billion, but to get the economy back on the right footing it needs to find around £40 billion.

In the US, all eyes are now on next week’s presidential election – the result of which, like the budget, should come out before next week's issue of Shares sees the light of day – with the candidates tied neck-and-neck in a deeply-polarised race.

Recently betting markets have moved towards predicting a Trump victory, with Bitcoin in demand given the Republican candidate's enthusiasm for all things crypto.

Harris’s policies have been backed by 23 Nobel prize-winning economists who called them ‘vastly superior’ to Trump’s and said they would ‘improve our nation’s health, investment, sustainability, resilience, employment opportunities and fairness’.

In contrast, many economists have warned Trump’s tariff and tax policies are inflationary and likely to send the deficit soaring and the dollar swooning. On the flip-side, Trump's plans for corporate tax cuts might be welcomed by the market. What won't be welcome is the level of uncertainty, particularly if the process of getting to the final outcome proves protracted or the result of the election is disputed.

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