2025 has been wild

Time flies when you’re having fun panicking about tariffs.

If you woke up from a six-month coma today, you would see the equity market has had a lackluster first two quarters: The S&P 500 is up 5.5% year to date, lagging its gain of nearly 15% over the same period in 2024.

It's been a crazy road to earn those meager gains. The S&P 500 hit an all-time high back in February, but after Trump unveiled that fateful, meme-able Liberation Day poster board on April 2, sh*t hit the fan—a staggering $6 trillion in market value was subsequently erased in just a few short days. As Trump eased, postponed, and compromised on the levies in subsequent weeks, the market gradually recovered, until it finally hit a new record high in late June, capping off an extraordinary 24% climb from its April low.

Overall, the best performing stock in the S&P 500 this year so far has been Palantir, which has gained 80.25% as ongoing geopolitical conflict has highlighted the company’s role in shaping the new landscape of AI-driven warfare. NRG Energy was the second best performing stock, climbing 77.95%. The power producer that also operates a derivatives trader has managed to catch the attention of investors even though it has a lukewarm balance sheet and—we’ll say it—a confusing business model.

On the flip side, the biggest loser this year so far has been Deckers Outdoor, which has plunged 49.27% as the footwear company has struggled to compete against peers like Adidas. Meanwhile, Enphase Energy dropped 42.27% this year as news spread that the GOP tax bill could gut clean energy credits that helped spur the solar industry’s growth.

What else you missed

The 2025 highlight reel also includes:

• The GOP has ushered in a new era of mainstream adoption for crypto—for better or for worse.
• US stocks were rocked after open conflict erupted between Israel and Iran two weeks ago.
• The IPO pipeline is finally making a comeback, with big names like CoreWeave, Chime, and eToro confidently diving into public market waters after a recent slowdown.
• The Federal Reserve has kept rates steady all year after cutting them back in December, fearing tariffs could re-stoke inflation.

I think we can all agree that we’ve experienced enough chaos this year to last us until at least 2026. Maybe we can go into hibernation then?—LB