The Stock Market’s Wild 2025 Roller-Coaster Ride in Six Charts

This was a year of extremes for the US stock market. The S&P 500 Index plunged to the verge of a tariff-induced bear market in April, only to quickly rebound after President Trump relented and by late June was hitting repeated records fueled by enthusiasm for all things artificial intelligence.

The vertigo-inducing swings can be seen in the Cboe Volatility Index, also know as the VIX, which measures anticipated price moves in stocks. On April 8, it soared to above 50 for the first time since the pandemic and just the second time since the financial crisis as ...