2016 was one of the most unexpected years, miracles like the Cubs winning the World Series to our 2016 election results. There were iconic deaths from Muhammad Ali all the way to most recently Princess Leia (Carrie Fischer) #rip. There were trends like bottle flipping and the mannequin challenge, iconic players in sports like Peyton Manning and Kobe Bryant retired and let us not forget that the Golden State Warriors blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals #neverforget. The financial and economic world was no stranger to these unexpected events and we here at Orca took some time to reflect and highlight some of the bigger 2016 financial events for you.
• China Reform: In January the Chinese market dropped as the government looked to put policies into place that would help them regain control, this affected US markets, simply because of FEAR.
• 2016 starts off on a low: All three popular indices, Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq were down over 8% in the first two weeks of 2016, because of fear from China.
• February Rally: This fear did not last long and the markets leveled out by the end of February.
• Apple suffers: Apple reported 22% loss in profit for the first time in 52 quarters.
• Tesla + SolarCity: Tesla acquired SolarCity for $2 Billion both companies were founded by Elon Musk.
• Microsoft bought Linkedin: Microsoft acquired LinkedIn for $26.2 Billion.
• Wells Fargo Scandal: Wells Fargo paid $185 Million in fines for opening up phony checking and savings accounts. Learn more here
• Indian Rupee: The Indian government banned the 500 and 1000 rupee notes in hopes of ridding the economy of “black” money. Only 2% of the population paid taxes.
• Oil hits 12 year low: Oil dropped as low as $22 a barrel in 2016 (Learn more here)
• Brexit: Great Brittan elected in favor to leave the European Union, sending the British pound in a downward spiral. (learn more here)
• Fed Rate Hike: Fed finally raised interest rates after 10 years! (Learn more here)
• Election: The election sent the market into a frenzy up and down until investors felt confident in the agenda of the new president
• Trump Tweets Boeing: Trump caused Boeing to lose over $500 million by tweeting that he won’t be buying the new Air Force One planes unless the price is lower. (Learn more here)
• 19,000+ Dow Jones Industrials: The Dow Jones hit a record high.
• Deutsche Bank settles: After 8 years Deutsche Bank finally settled for $7.2 Billion from the mortgage crisis in 2008, ya the bank Ryan Gosling worked for in The Big Short.
As you can see the market will always go up and down and 2016 was no different, people will always act on fear and greed. The important lesson is to never change your game plan and do not freak out until all the information is present. So what’s your game plan ? Do you have one? If not, one of our partners can help set one for you.
We here at Orca understand this and we thank you for being part of our birth in 2016; we look forward to swimming by your side in 2017. Empowering the new generation and working to plan and invest for success.
Here’s to 2017, may it be an Orca of a year!
