January 2019 has the distinction of being the best January for the S&P 500 Index since 1987. For those keeping score, this follows closely on the heels of another distinction: December 2018 gave us the worst December performance for the index since 1931.^[1]

This New Year got off to quite an interesting start.

After a number of positive records for markets and major indices in 2018,^[1] markets began to tumble in the last quarter – and January started with a bang.

Equity markets were surprisingly exciting in the last week of the year. While both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average are down for 2018 (as of December 28), both indexes had huge single-day rebounds– the largest in almost ten years for the S&P 500 and the largest in history for the Dow.^[1]