The US stock exchanges are closed with profits on New Year’s Eve. Investors reacted elated to a tweet from President Donald Trump, in a more peaceful trading session. But that did not prevent the surveyors from having to hand in properly throughout the year. Wall Street even knew its worst year since 2008.

The Dow-Jones index ended 1.2 percent in the plus at 23,327.46 points. This means an annual loss of almost 6 percent. The broad S & P 500 gained 0.9 percent on Monday at 2.506.85 points, which also results in an annual loss of around 6 percent. Technology fair Nasdaq, which had the last trading day of the year 0.8 percent, fell by a score of 6,635.28 points around 4 percent compared to a year earlier.

Trump tweeted last weekend that he has long talked with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. There would be a shot in the negotiations on the trade dispute between the two countries. Investors nevertheless look back on a year full of headache dossiers. In addition to all the turmoil caused by the trade tensions, sentiment was under pressure due to, for example, the Brexit and recently the shutdown of the American government. The Federal Reserve also tightened interest rates a number of times and that also had repercussions on the financial markets.

At the Dow index side the American pharmaceutical company Merck & Co has done the best in 2018, with an annual gain of around 34 percent. The stock market value also rose sharply in the case of sector competitor Pfizer, who received almost 19 percent. Investment bank Goldman Sachs was the biggest loser of the year in the list. The share has lost around 36 percent.

The price trend of Apple was also striking. On the last trading day of 2017, a share in the technology group was worth more than $ 169. The price peaked at $ 233.47 last summer, bringing the total market value of Apple to over $ 1 trillion. But in the meantime Apple has been a ‘trillion company’ for a while. The share closed the year at $ 156.79. Apple is therefore worth ‘only’ about 750 billion dollars.