The stock market made some gains Monday, but still ended the year with its worst performance since the 2008 financial crisis, AP reports. The S&P 500 was down 6.2% at the end of the year, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 5.6%.
Between the lines, per Axios' Courtenay Brown: The crisis-era comparison sounds scary, but this is a very different market than it was in 2008, when the S&P fell 35%. The Dow and the S&P 500 also had the worst year since 2008 back in 2015. Look how well the stock market has done since then.
President Trump thoroughly upended the global trading system in 2018, slapping tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of imports as he pledged to "put America first" and renegotiate more favorable trade deals for the U.S. around the world.
The big picture: At their peak, Trump's trade wars were fought on three main fronts: Europe, North America and China. Since then, the president has agreed to a handshake ceasefire with the EU and successfully renegotiated NAFTA with Canada and Mexico, pending congressional approval. That leaves the spat with China — temporarily on hold until March 1 — as Trump's most expensive and high-stakes trade challenge heading into 2019.
We've listed 32 of the momentous events we lived through in 2018, as told on the front page of The New York Times.
Why it matters: During many of the peaks and troughs of history, the people living it didn't fully realize what was unfolding. But we all know we're navigating breathtaking history: Nearly every day could be — maybe will be — a book.
The decline of journalist killings in the last 6 years has ended, with 94 journalists and news media staffers killed around the world in 2018, the AP reports.
By the numbers: The deadliest place for journalists this year was Afghanistan, where 16 killings occurred, followed by Mexico with 11, Yemen with 9, and Syria with 8. The numbers come from the International Federation of Journalists, an international trade group, in a report set for release Monday.
Driving the news: They raised an astonishing amount of money in 2018 — some $45.6 billion in Hong Kong and New York alone. That's more than double the $19.2 billion raised in 2017; it's also more than double the $20.7 billion raised in Chinese domestic IPOs.
Here'sMatt Egan's summaryof one month in the stock market, for CNN: "Not one but two 1,000-point plunges for the Dow. And a powerful comeback... easily one of Wall Street's wildest months since 2008... A real roller-coaster. A wild ride."
The month in question? February 2018. With all the other crazy going on in the world this year, you can be forgiven if you've forgotten all of February's noise already.
Lindsey Graham told CNN’s Dana Bash Sunday morning that he is going to ask President Trump at lunch today to reconsider his decision to pull U.S. troops from Syria, stating that his goal is to get Trump to slow down a withdrawal.
Between the lines: Trump has frequently sought advice from Sen. Graham on foreign policy matters, but Trump ignored his advice when announcing that he was withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria. It's unclear whether Graham's latest attempt will be any different.
