Without doubt, 2016 was the year of the big surprise. Or to be more accurate, surprises.
The biggest surprises were the Brexit decision in late June, when—despite all expectations to the contrary—the UK electorate voted to leave the EU, sending markets into a tailspin for a few days while pushing sterling lower. Then, just when markets appeared to have regained their footing, the U.S. electorate provided the next, possibly even bigger curveball—the unexpected election of Donald Trump as 45th President of the United States.
The Fed didn't hike rates four times as they'd suggested at the end of 2015, but rather held off till December before raising interest rates just once in 2016. And oil surprised by heading lower and lower, hitting it's lowest level since May 2003 in February—$26.21bbl. And U.S. markets provided some surprises of their own, with a number of indices reaching all-time highs more than once during the year.
There were a number of other events that surprised investors as well to round out the 2016 market year. As we bid goodbye to 2016, we thought it might be fun, even interesting, to take a look at the past year through the prism of Investing.com's weekly comics. Below, 14 comics and the events that were the highlights of our year.
1. January 13: Oil futures fell below the $30-level to hit a 12-year low in early January, as concerns over a global supply glut dragged down prices.
2. January 21: Global stock markets plunged in the first few weeks of 2016, as fears over the outlook for global growth brought out the bears.
3. March 1: Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton secured their parties' presidential nominations with a series of victories on Super Tuesday.
4. March 10: ECB President Mario Draghi rolled out fresh stimulus measures in early March—including increased asset buying and a deeper cut to deposit rates—but signaled there would be no further rate cuts.
5. May 11: The Fed left interest rates unchanged following its meeting in late April and issued a statement implying it was in no hurry to raise rates, prompting market players to reassess their expectations for the timing of the next U.S. rate hike.
6. May 19: Oil prices returned to the $50-level in May as unplanned supply disruptions in Nigeria, Libya, Venezuela and Canada eased concerns over a global glut.
7. June 9: The S&P 500 index climbed towards fresh record-high territory in June thanks to a rally in oil prices.
8. June 23: The UK shocked the world by voting to exit the European Union in late June.
9. July 14: The Dow and S&P 500 hit all-time highs in July as hopes of further monetary policy easing fueled a post-Brexit rally in markets.
10. September 19: The VIX soared by nearly 50% to levels above 18.00 in the early weeks of September as a high degree of uncertainty over what the Federal Reserve would do at its meeting the following week fueled volatility.
11. September 29: Shares of Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) collapsed to record lows in late September on mounting concerns about the survival of the struggling German lender.
12. November 8: Republican candidate Donald Trump was elected as the 45th president of the United States, shattering expectations for a victory by Democrat Hillary Clinton.
13. November 16: Expectations of a significant fiscal stimulus under the administration of President-elect Donald Trump sent the U.S. dollar to its highest in nearly 14 years against a basket of currencies and the Dow Jones to record high territory.
14. December 14: The Federal Reserve hiked interest rates for the first time in a year in December and projected three more increases in 2017.
