2018 Uncertainty Likely to Continue Into 2019

Adviser Investments’ Chief Investment Officer Jim Lowell has the market analysis for Friday, December 28. Major U.S. stockA financial instrument giving the holder a proportion of the ownership and earnings of a company. indexes saw mixed results, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 declining 0.3% and 0.1%, respectively, and the NASDAQ up 0.1%. Jim believes that investors should continue to expect a similar level of volatilityA measure of how large the changes in an asset’s price are. The more volatile an asset, the more likely that its price will experience sharp rises and steep drops over time. The more volatile an asset is, the riskier it is to invest in. heading into 2019 because the same factors that contributed to 2018’s uncertainty “clearly remain hurdles that the market will continue to have to overcome.” Jim reminds investors that times like this emphasize the importance of remaining well-diversified with stocksA financial instrument giving the holder a proportion of the ownership and earnings of a company., bondsA financial instrument representing an IOU from the borrower to the lender. Bond issuers promise to pay bond holders a given amount of interest for a pre-determined amount of time until the loan is repaid in full (otherwise known as the maturity date). Bonds can have a fixed or floating interest rate. Fixed-rate bonds pay out a pre-determined amount of interest each year, while floating-rate bonds can pay higher or lower interest each year depending on prevailing market interest rates. and cash and to not overreact or try to time the market.