Paint red October black: markets' ascent in historically tough month bodes well for future. (Market Moves).

The month of October has served as the backdrop for some of the largest stock market declines in history, most notably the U.S. crashes in 1929 and 1987.

But this year, the Dow put on its strongest one-month performance in 16 years, growing 10.6%, while the Nasdaq increased 13.2%. Mexico's IPC moved in concert to some degree with these markets, increasing 4% in October.

Some of the factors that contributed to the solid performance of U.S. markets were: the belief of an economic recovery, the Fed's decision to slash interest rates by 50 basis points during its last meeting, apparent deadlock in the United Nations over how to proceed on the Iraq conflict and …