Last week in the Q4 2018 Market Review, we took a look at what happened to the markets in the last few months of 2018. This week, while many of the themes will sound similar, we look at all of last year.

Happy New Year! As for the last one, at least the last quarter, good riddance! Concerns that the Fed may have applied the brakes a tad too long, an escalating trade war with China, ongoing Brexit drama, and a eurozone confidence slowdown resulted in one of the worst quarters for equity markets since the 2008-09 bear market. The selloff began when the Fed Chairman suggested that further rate increases were on the horizon. That sparked volatility that ultimately saw most equity markets fall 20% or more below previous highs, which is the classic definition of a bear market.