Risk investors richly rewarded in past year

Wars in Europe and the Middle East. Global political upheaval. Angst over a potential US recession. These and other pitfalls stalked markets in 2024 but in the end investors who embraced risk reaped the rewards.

- Richard Henderson

Relatively constrained volatility across assets provided a foundation for the gains, so much so that the question now is whether bigger swings are all but inevitable in 2025.

For the year just gone, MSCI Inc.'s global stock gauge fell 2% or more on only three days, on the way to an annual climb of almost 16%.

The US drove the equity rally, notably a surge of 67% in an index tracking the Magnificent Seven megacap tech firms.