What a decade for investors it was! In fact, as you will read in the Weekly Market Review, the last half century has been pretty amazing for investors. However, the noise for investors never stops. The news cycle and concerns that worry investors are persistent. Certainly, these noisy news-centric issues are very important, but maybe not as important as you think when it comes to your investments. Below is a list of some of the major negative issues that plagued and worried investors, but despite the concerns investors reaped a handsome reward for taking risk in stocks.
2010 – Greece’s sovereign credit rating is downgraded to junk by S&P
2011 – U.S. government debt downgrade
2012 – Eurozone economy experiences double-dip recession
2013 – Taper tantrum
2014 – Ebola outbreak
2015 – U.S. dollar spikes, oil prices crash
2016 – Brexit begins
2017 – Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria hit the U.S.
2018 – S&P 500 sells off nearly 20% to end the year
2019 – U.S./China trade tensions escalate
Where do we go from here? It’s tempting to take a break from investments that contain risk given how well the market has done. Certainly, having some money not invested in stocks is prudent, especially if the time-line for using those investments is drawing short, but those that have time should stay the path. As you can see in the chart below, courtesy of JP Morgan, staying invested has worked, but missing just some of the best days cost investors big time.
Get invested, Stay invested. Growth of $10,000 investment in the S&P 500 between January 4, 1999 and December 31, 2018
As always, we hope you find the Weekly Market Review both informative and interesting.
Click HERE for the Weekly Market Review
Trevor N. Coe, CFP