Stock market returns are likely to turn negative at some point in any given year. Some declines are short-lived, while others may last the entire year.
How often is the stock market positive?
But did you know that over the last 41 years, the stock market has ended in positive territory more than 75% of the time? To see how this tendency has played out, the chart below shows the calendar year performance of the S&P 500® Index in green and the largest period of downward performance within each calendar year in red.
Keep in mind, the intra-year declines show that between January 1 and December 31 of the year, at some point, the index was down the percentage highlighted in red. The green percentages highlight the summary of how the index performed for the entire year.