Stock markets displayed their unpredictability in 2019, striding surprisingly and steadily higher after shaking off the volatility of the prior year. Low interest rates and generally benevolent economic and profit conditions provided the catalyst.

The turnaround in markets that began in January has continued for much of 2019 to date, such that share prices are generally now at or near historic highs. The strength of the rise, Australian shares are up about 20% in 2019 including dividends, is surprising, but so too was the abruptness of the market decline in the last quarter of 2018...

2018 was a perplexing year for investment markets, having started apprehensively due to economic growth and rising interest rates concerns, which was then followed by a benign mid-year period of greater optimism and growth, that ended abruptly in the final quarter. By year-end markets of all types - stocks, bonds and currencies - were experiencing heightened investor agitation and volatility.