2026 began similarly to how 2025 ended, with euphoria around stocks and the prospect of continued economic growth driven by the AI boom leading to a fourth consecutive year of double-digit gains. As of late January, as the S&P 500 hit an all-time high, it looked like that story was playing out.

As a child, I remember reading comics in the newspaper. My favorite was Calvin and Hobbes, which told the story of an imaginative six-year-old boy, the former, and his stuffed tiger/best friend, the latter. Having just celebrated 30 years since its last publication, we will look to it as inspiration for our 2025 recap and 2026 outlook. Out of respect for the Watterson estate and copyright laws—there are no actual comics in this post. We strongly recommend you taking few minutes to check them out online if you never have before…

Though technically not the actual title (Oedipus was a tyrant (tyrannus), not a king (rex)), we can never pass over a good pun. Accordingly, we comically (or, maybe satirically) use a play on words here as our theme.

Markets have been beaten up to start 2025, especially as it relates to tariffs and government spending cuts, pronouncements from both the president himself as well as his various cabinet members are moving markets. What we have experienced has been unpredictable and violent, like the financial version of a bar-room brawl.

Markets have been beaten up to start 2025, especially as it relates to tariffs and government spending cuts, pronouncements from both the president himself as well as his various cabinet members are moving markets. What we have experienced has been unpredictable and violent, like the financial version of a bar-room brawl.

Markets have been beaten up to start 2025, especially as it relates to tariffs and government spending cuts, pronouncements from both the president himself as well as his various cabinet members are moving markets. What we have experienced has been unpredictable and violent, like the financial version of a bar-room brawl.