The US stock market is back. President Trump's April 2 "Liberation Day" reciprocal tariff announcements sent stocks tumbling. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell more than 10% over the next three trading ...

The chart shows that over this period of almost 150 years, $1 (in 1870 U.S. dollars) invested in a hypothetical U.S. stock market index in 1871 would have grown to $18,500 by the end of June 2020.

It took the US stock market 18 months to recover from its most recent bear market—the downturn of December 2021, which was spurred by the Russia-Ukraine war, intense inflation, and supply shortages.

As our chart of the week shows, the S&P 500 has seen a larger drawdown than the 18.9% peak-to-trough drop in the index this year during each recession since 1973.

The following chart shows the average S&P 500 return in each month between January 1928 and December 2023. Chart by Author. Investors can learn a few lessons from the chart above.

The chart shows the percentage changes in the Standard and Poor’s monthly stock price index (which gives a snapshot of the market), corrected for inflation, during the incumbencies of Republican ...