FYI: Updated with performance figures through the close on June 28.
You could call this the year of the mood swing for the U.S. stock market.
Investors went from being “certain” that the Federal Reserve would continue raising interest rates, which helped cause a sharp decline in stock prices in the fourth quarter, to being surprised by a turnaround in Fed policy in March, when the Federal Open Market Committee decided to halt the rate increases and curb the central bank’s balance-sheet runoff. Last week the language of the Fed’s customary policy statement softened further, helping to push the S&P 500 Index SPX, +0.58% to record levels.
The Fed’s about-face helped push the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes TMUBMUSD10Y, +1.07% down to 2.00% on June 28 from 2.69% at the end of 2018.
Here’s how four broad stock indexes performed during the first half of 2019 (through June 27), in the fourth quarter and all of last year, with dividends reinvested:
Regards,
Ted
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/here-are-the-stock-markets-winners-and-losers-in-the-first-half-of-2019-2019-06-28/print
