Insights
Stocks: events that moved it
Discretionary and benchmarked equity portfolios. This page gathers the pieces in our Insights archive that touched stocks: what happened, what it meant for this kind of investment, and where to read the original reporting.
Market-history pieces are retrospectives, dated by the event. They are general information, not advice, and not a record of any RockLake position at the time.
Market history · 52
Central banks ·
The Fed turns: from a cutting debate to a rate rise
In 2026 the Federal Reserve moved from dissents in favour of cuts to a unanimous quarter-point increase.
Currencies ·
The US and Japan step in to support the yen
After the yen fell to its weakest since 1986, both governments bought yen in a joint intervention.
New issues ·
SpaceX lists in the largest IPO ever
A $75 billion offering, with individual investors queuing for shares, put a private company's growth into public hands in a single day.
Commodities ·
The Iran war sends Brent above $113
With the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut, oil had risen about 50% since the war began.
New issues ·
Figma more than triples on its first day
A heavily oversubscribed software IPO showed how much demand there was for growth shares in 2025, and how quickly early gains can fade.
Commodities ·
Israel strikes Iran and oil jumps
Crude rose sharply and shares fell as markets weighed the risk to Gulf supply.
Infrastructure ·
The IEA sizes the power demand from artificial intelligence
The International Energy Agency projected that electricity use by data centres would more than double by 2030.
Trade ·
The 90-day tariff pause and the biggest one-day rally since 2008
A week after Liberation Day, a pause on most reciprocal tariffs sent US shares sharply higher.
Trade ·
Liberation Day: a tariff shock reprices global markets
Sweeping US tariff announcements triggered one of the sharpest sell-offs since 2020.
New issues ·
CoreWeave prices below its range and closes flat
The biggest US tech listing since 2021 was a muted debut, a sign that appetite for AI shares had limits.
Fiscal policy ·
Germany loosens its debt brake
A historic fiscal package for defence and infrastructure marked a turn in Europe's biggest economy.
Technology ·
The DeepSeek shock
A low-cost Chinese AI model prompted a record one-day loss in Nvidia's market value.
Central banks ·
The Fed cuts again, and markets fall
A third cut to 4.25–4.50% came with a more cautious outlook for 2025.
Markets ·
Markets react to Donald Trump's election win
US stocks and the dollar rose and bitcoin surged as investors priced in tax cuts, tariffs and deregulation.
Markets ·
The yen carry-trade unwind
A Bank of Japan rate rise and weak US data triggered Japan's worst day since 1987.
Technology ·
Nvidia becomes the world's most valuable listed company
The AI chip-maker overtook Microsoft, with a market value above $3 trillion.
Central banks ·
The ECB makes its first rate cut since 2019
Europe moved ahead of the Fed, trimming its deposit rate from a record 4% to 3.75%.
Emerging markets ·
India's markets tumble on a narrower election win
Stocks that had hit record highs on exit-poll hopes fell almost 6% in a day when the ruling alliance's majority was smaller than expected.
Central banks ·
Japan ends negative interest rates
The Bank of Japan raised rates for the first time in 17 years after the Nikkei topped its 1989 peak.
Geopolitics ·
Oil and gold rise after the Hamas attack on Israel
Oil jumped more than 4% on the first trading day, and gold reached $2,000 by the end of the month.
New issues ·
Arm's IPO reopens the market for large listings
The chip designer raised $4.87 billion, the biggest offering of 2023, and rose 25% on its first day.
Equities ·
Nvidia and the AI rally lift the Nasdaq
A blow-out forecast made artificial intelligence the market's dominant theme.
Banking ·
Credit Suisse is sold to UBS
A weekend rescue wrote down CHF 16 billion of AT1 bonds and shocked bondholders.
Banking ·
Silicon Valley Bank fails
A $42 billion single-day deposit run brought down the 16th-largest US bank.
Portfolios ·
2022: when stocks and bonds fell together
The classic 60/40 portfolio had one of its worst years in decades.
Currencies ·
The euro falls to parity with the dollar
For the first time in twenty years one euro bought one dollar or less.
Central banks ·
The Fed's 75 basis-point hike
The largest single rate rise since 1994 in a year that took rates from near zero to 4.5%.
Central banks ·
The Fed starts its fastest tightening in decades
A quarter-point rise to 0.25–0.50% began a campaign that took rates above 4% within the year.
New issues ·
Rivian lists at a value above Ford and GM
An electric-vehicle maker with almost no revenue was valued at $86 billion after its first day.
Emerging markets ·
China's regulatory crackdown hits tech and education shares
Rules on data, tutoring and overseas listings erased tens of billions in value in a matter of weeks.
Alternatives ·
Archegos: the hidden leverage that cost banks billions
A family office using swaps built huge positions in a handful of shares; when they fell, the banks that financed it lost heavily.
Equities ·
The SPAC boom
Record numbers of blank-cheque companies listed, then largely disappointed.
Equities ·
GameStop and the retail short squeeze
Coordinated retail buying sent a struggling retailer up more than twentyfold and caught hedge funds short.
Markets ·
Vaccine news sparks a great rotation
Positive trial results sent cyclical and value stocks surging and pandemic winners lower.
New issues ·
Ant Group's record IPO is suspended days before listing
Regulators halted a dual listing that was set to raise almost $34.5 billion, the largest ever at the time.
New issues ·
Snowflake doubles in the biggest software IPO ever
The cloud data company raised about $3.4 billion and more than doubled on its first day.
Policy ·
The $2.2 trillion CARES Act is signed
The largest US fiscal rescue in history helped stop the fall in markets.
Equities ·
The fastest bear market in history
The S&P 500 fell about a third in five weeks as the pandemic shut down economies.
Central banks ·
The Fed's half-point cut before its scheduled meeting
The Fed cut by half a point on 3 March 2020, weeks before it was due to meet.
New issues ·
Saudi Aramco raises $25.6 billion in the world's biggest IPO
The oil giant's Riyadh listing priced at 32 riyals and briefly made it the most valuable company in the world.
New issues ·
Uber lists below its offer price
The ride-hailing company priced at $45, opened at $42 and ended its first day lower.
Equities ·
The December 2018 sell-off
US stocks fell almost 20% from their September peak as the Fed kept raising rates.
Central banks ·
The Fed raises rates for the fourth time in 2018
A rise to 2.25–2.50% came in the middle of a market sell-off.
Trade ·
The US–China tariff war begins
Tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports took effect, and China retaliated in kind.
Volatility ·
Volmageddon
The VIX more than doubled in a day, destroying products that bet on calm markets.
Policy ·
US tax reform cuts the corporate rate to 21%
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed on 22 December 2017.
Volatility ·
The year volatility vanished
The VIX closed below 10 repeatedly and the S&P 500 rose every month.
Markets ·
The reflation trade
Bond yields jumped, banks and cyclicals rallied and the Fed raised rates for the second time.
Currencies ·
Brexit: the UK votes to leave the EU
A 52–48 result surprised markets and sent sterling to a 30-year low.
Markets ·
China's yuan devaluation and 'Black Monday'
A surprise currency move and a collapsing Chinese equity bubble unsettled global markets.
Equities ·
China's stock market peaks, then loses a third of its value
A margin-fuelled boom ended in a summer of heavy falls and government intervention.
Currencies ·
The Swiss franc shock
The SNB scrapped its euro cap without warning and the franc surged as much as 29%.
Explainers · 7
Portfolio construction
Diversification only works if the pieces behave differently
Why owning many things is not the same as being diversified.
Currencies
Currency risk: the second return inside every foreign investment
How exchange rates add to, or subtract from, what you earn abroad.
Risk
Concentration: when a few names carry the index
What the DeepSeek shock showed about owning the market.
Risk
Drawdowns: why losses are harder to recover than they look
The arithmetic of falling and recovering, and what it means for risk.
New issues
How an IPO is priced, and why day one is not the whole story
The offer price, the first-day close and the price a year later are three different numbers.
Investor education
Event risk: what a market-history archive can and cannot teach
Events differ every time, but the ways portfolios are hurt are fewer and repeat.
Investor education
How to use our market-history archive
Browse by year, by series or by the asset class an event affected, and follow each source to the original.
RockLake is by invitation only.
Have an invitation code? Open your account. If not, request one and we'll be in touch.