The US stock and bond market performed very well last year. US equities as measured by the S&P 500 yielded total returns that were well above the historical average and US Treasury bonds also earned above average total returns with a year-end return of 2.1%.

The chart below shows the annual total returns of S&P 500 and US treasury bonds by year fro 1873 ad 1900 respectively:

Click to enlarge

Source: Economic and Strategy Viewpoint January 2018, Schroders