A look at the stock market in 2018

This was the year that the bear market commenced.

The stock market had a strong first none months, despite a bitter trade spat between the world’s two largest economies and political turmoil in Washington. Then, the gray clouds hovered over the New York Stock Exchange, sending the market into freefall mode.

On the final trading session of 2018, the Dow Jones is up nearly 200 points to 23,235.73, the NASDAQ is up 55 points to 6,640, and the S&P 500 tacked on 20 points to 2,506.

So, how did the leading stock indexes perform in 2018:

– Dow Jones tumbled six percent.
– NASDAQ fell 4.5 percent.
– S&P 500 dropped seven percent.

The best performing stocks on the Dow this year were:

– Merck & Co. (33.9 percent)
– Pfizer (18.6 percent)
– Microsoft (17.4 percent)
– Nike (17.3 percent)
– Visa (14.8 percent)

The worst were:

– Goldman Sachs (-36 percent)
– IBM (-26.3 percent)
– DowDuPont (-25.6 percent)
– Caterpillra (-20.3 percent)
– 3M (-19.5 percent)