Summary: Big rebound in stocks to start 2019 leaves professional worriers behind. Stocks tanked in the last quarter of 2018. Essentially, many investors had become convinced that a recession was on the horizon and competed with each other to sell stocks ahead of the expected bad corporate and economic news. Why were investors convinced that things were turning south? The most significant factor (but not the only one) was the Federal Reserve’s insistence on tightening monetary policy and apparent lack of sensitivity to markets. Unfortunately for those who sold positions, the Fed subsequently completely changed its posturing and adopted a friendlier stance for stocks. Simultaneously, economic data remained fairly robust, thus spurring a 12% rise in the S&P500 to start 2019.
