For those who don’t follow the stock market on a regular basis, I thought I would provide a high level summary and recap. Most investors are relieved that 2018 is over. There were a lot of highs, including the tax-cut optimism, to quite a lot of lows, especially the last few months. From a U.S. stock market perspective, it was the worst performance since 2008 during the financial crises. The S&P 500 fell 6.2% for the year. In fact, Q4 was a brutal quarter where the S&P declined 19% from its high. It was one of the more volatile years I have seen in a while. Overall, the huge corporate tax cut helped send markets soaring to all-time highs. However interest rate increases and a tariff battle started to spook some investors which increased volatility. 2018 showed continued strong and steady employment levels, including both the private-sector and public sector. The consumer confidence was also strong throughout the year.
As we enter into 2019, it is always good to re-evaluate your portfolio and investments. You can see my overview of asset allocations in another article.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions or if you want to know any additional stats on the stock market performance in 2018.