The Year in Money

Record market highs, interest rate hikes, an M&A boom and hardship for the British pound were just some of the defining moments for investors in 2016.

December 22, 2016

By Mathieu Benhamou, Jeremy Scott DiamondJeremy Scott Diamond, Laurie Meisler and Chloe WhiteakerChloe Whiteaker

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Stocks

With Trump fueling the market, the Dow broke its own record 43 times and set an intraday high 34 times

Canada’s Teck Resources was the best performer among stocks with market caps of more than $10 billion

On December 15, U.S. market cap was 38% of the world’s total, a 10-year high, while market caps for much of Europe were trending lower

Note: Shown are highs for the year

Bonds

Global bonds ended a 25-year advance with a record monthly loss of 4% in November

Sales of U.S. dollar-denominated investment-grade corporate bonds set a record for the sixth-straight year

Anticipating higher interest rates, municipalities issued the most bonds since at least 2003

Interest Rates

U.S. Federal Reserve officials lifted the benchmark interest rate for the second time since cutting it to near-zero in 2008

Source: Federal Funds Target Rate Mid Point of Range

Funds

Hedge-fund liquidations outpaced launches for the second year in a row

Source: HFR

Exchange-traded fund flows continued to set records as investors abandoned active funds for passive ones

Source: Bloomberg Intelligence

M&A

China’s spending on acquisitions in the U.S. and Europe in 2016 was more than in the three previous years combined

Time Warner, whose 2000 merger with America Online was the biggest M&A deal of all time, is being targeted by AT&T in what could be the fifth-biggest deal

Note: America Online and Time Warner was a merger of equals

The total value of $10 billion-plus M&A deals terminated or withdrawn was the highest since at least 1999

Commodities

OPEC pumped a record 34.16 million barrels of oil per day in November

Gold had its heaviest-ever trading day on November 9 as investors sought havens after Trump’s election

Currencies

The pound and peso were the biggest losers against the dollar

The sterling slid the most on record against the dollar on June 24 after the U.K. opted to quit the European Union

Country Risk

The cost of insuring Kazakhstan’s debt declined the most; Germany’s debt showed the biggest gain

Note: Figure are for 5-year contracts

Real Estate

Confidence among U.S. homebuilders surged to an 11-year high on expectations of a reduced regulatory burden during a Trump administration

Venture Capital

In April Alibaba’s financing affiliate, Ant Financial, had tech’s largest round of private financing, only to be matched by Didi Chuxing a month later

Consumer

Outstanding U.S. student-loan balances increased $76 billion in one year

Source: FRBNY Consumer Credit Panel/Equifax

Wealth

Warren Buffett got $12 billion richer, while Wang Jianlin’s fortune tumbled by $5.7 billion

Methodology

All data are as of December 15, and came from the Bloomberg terminal unless otherwise noted. The totals for mergers and acquisitions and venture capital are based on announced value, with non-U.S. dollar values converted to U.S. dollars at the time of announcement. The data on acquisitions by China excluded deals where the acquirer is a Chinese private equity fund managed by a general partner whose country of risk is outside China.

To identify the stocks with the best returns, prices were converted to U.S. dollars before the calculations were made. The Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Total Return Index was used to gauge returns for global bonds. The Bloomberg League Table function was used to quantify corporate bond issuance, and included only issues greater than $50 million.

Currency calculations are for major currencies only. Country risk refers to the percentage change in spreads for countries’ 5-year credit-default swaps. Wealth is based on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which monitors the world’s highest-net-worth individuals and how their fortunes change on a daily basis.

Research: Maryann Busso and Jennifer Prince