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2017 Review Thumbnail

2017 Review

In January 2017, one media outlet said Wall Street strategists were more bearish on equities than they had been for any year since 2005. The consensus forecast for the S&P 500 was for a gain in 2017 of about 4%. Individual forecasts from the 16 analysts quoted by the publication ranged from as low as 1.3% to as high as 10.1%.

World Stock Market Performance

MSCI All Country World Index (IMI) with selected headlines from 2017


Source: MSCI data © MSCI 2018, all rights reserved.  In US dollars, net dividends. Index is not available for direct investment, therefore their performance does not reflect the expenses associated with management of an actual portfolio. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.

So how did that turn out? Well, by mid-December, nearly a year after those forecasts were published, the S&P500 was up by nearly 19% for the calendar year, the US market’s ninth consecutive year of gains and shaping up as its best year since 2013.

Major World Indices Ranked by One-Year Performance (net dividends) (%)

As of December 31, 2017


In US dollars. Sources: MSCI, Russell, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and Bloomberg Barclays. MSCI data © MSCI 2018, all rights reserved. Frank Russell Company is the source and owner of the trademarks, service marks and copyrights related to the Russell Indexes. Citi fixed income indices © 2018 by Citigroup. ICE BofAML index data copyright 2018 ICE Data Indices, LLC. Bloomberg Barclays data provided by Bloomberg. Indices are not available for direct investment, therefore their performance does not reflect the expenses associated with management of an actual portfolio. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.