Imagine if I’d told you, one year ago, that 2014 would include all of the following: soaring Treasury bond prices, a collapse in global commodity prices, a rise in civil unrest, the largest Ebola outbreak in history, and the viral transmission of Kim Kardashian’s hideously massive derriere.
At the least, you would’ve guessed that the stock market was going to crash. More likely, you would’ve thought the end of the world was upon us.
But you would’ve been wrong.
Impending doom was deferred by major stimulative forces, including the legalization of marijuana in several states, the unveiling of the Apple Watch, and the appointment of Janet Yellen as Chair of the Federal Reserve.
But all joking aside, 2014 reminded many of the period preceding World War II, when Germany won the Olympics held in Berlin and later went on to annex Czechoslovakia.
Last year, Russia won the medal count in the Sochi Winter Olympics and annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea soon after. The Ukrainian hryvnia also lost the most value of any paper currency in 2014, falling nearly 50% (relative to the U.S. dollar).
Amazingly, though, the hryvnia wasn’t the worst-performing currency in 2014. That dubious distinction belongs to digital currency Bitcoin, which collapsed by nearly 60%.
With 2014 in the history books, let’s take a look at how various financial assets and investments performed last year…
Equities
Despite rising geopolitical risk, the S&P 500 posted a solid year. The SPDR S&P 500 Trust (SPY) gained 13.5% on a total return basis, aided by Apple’s (AAPL) 41% romping.
The best-performing stock in the S&P 500 this year was Southwest Airlines (LUV), with a 126% advance. Meanwhile, the worst performer was deepwater driller Transocean (RIG), with a 60% decline, including dividends.
Utilities proved to be the best-performing U.S. sector and, unsurprisingly, energy was the worst sector.
