Stock Market 2025

 

    

 

 

I write this post over the weekend after two days of alarming declines in the stock market apparently due to President Trump’s imposition of new tariffs. I do not know whether the market will continue to sink on Monday or rebound. But I thought it might be a good idea to look at recent market performance and perhaps draw some conclusions. Let’s take a look at some specific examples of what has happened over the past five days, over the past 12 months, and over the past five years.

 

Here are the figures for the three most popular market averages over the past five days, the past 12 months, and over the past five years. 

 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down about 8% over the past 5 days, and down 1% over the past year. Despite the recent decline, it is up 82% over the past 5 years, an average of about 16% per year. Not bad! The broader Standard and Poor 500 index is down about 9% over the past 5 days, and down 1% over the past year. Despite the recent decline, it is up 103% over the past 5 years, an average of over 20% per year. The tech heavy NASDAQ index is down about 10% over the past 5 days, and down 3% over the past year. However, it is still up 111% over the past 5 years, even better than the other averages.

 

Here are performance figures of some individual stocks.

 

Apple is down about 14% over the past 5 days, but still up 14% over the past year. Over the past 5 years it is up 212%, an average of over 40% per year.

 

Retailer Costco is down only 1% over the past 5 days, but still up 30% over the past year. Over the past 5 years it is up 218%, an average of over 40% per year. Retailer Walmart is down only 2% over the past 5 days, but still up 40% over the past year. Over the past 5 years it is up 109%, an average of about 20% per year.

 

Tech giant NVIDIA is down 14% over the past 5 days, but still up 10% over the past year. Over the past 5 years it is up a whopping 1447%, an average of almost 300% per year. Tesla, despite the systematic campaign against Elon Musk, is down only 9% over the past 5 days, but still up 40% over the past year. Over the past 5 years it is up 648%, an average of over 120% per year.

 

Major utility Southern Company is down 2% over the past 5 days, but still up 27% over the past year. Over the past 5 years it is up a respectable 77% an average of about 15% per year, not bad for a utility. ATT (T) is down only 5% over the past 5 days, but still up 52% over the past year. However, it is only up 28% in the past five years, an average of about 5% per year. In the past year “T” has made a remarkable comeback.

 

It would appear that ordinary people whose 401k or IRA is invested in index funds or individual stocks are still way ahead of the game whether they are approaching retirement or not. The biggest mistake that people can make is to change their investment strategy as they approach retirement. These days most people’s retirement years will be longer than their working years. Investments for retirement should be long term since you will need the income for decades. 

 

For those worried about tariffs and inflation, at least the price of stocks has gone down in the past week. As I said at the outset of this post, I do not know what will happen next week in the market, but sooner or later the computers programmed to buy and sell at certain levels will start buying as prices decline, just as they have been selling and taking profits after five years of gains.

 

###