During May and June, investors experienced increased market volatility as stronger economic data, persistent inflation, and changing expectations for Federal Reserve policy drove sharp swings in stock prices.
Gold and silver continued their unprecedented rally for most of January with higher prices accelerating in the last two weeks. Precious metals were overdue for a correction, but it was the magnitude of the decline on the last trading day of the month that was shocking.
August surprised market watchers as all three major indexes climbed higher in a month which is often a laggard.
Precipitous decline in first half of April is recovered by month’s end.
The good news in January is the market rebounded in the last half of the month to recover its losses from the December pull-back.
The market struggled in December with all major indexes declining. After the initial bump in the week following the presidential election, investors turned their attention to economic issues again.