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Heading into 2025, it helps to know whats happened in 2024.
While these major changes arent necessarily signs of whats to come, they certainly can be.
Here are five big things that happened to the economy in 2024.
Inflation Rates Fell
Investors and individuals alike have been worried about inflation, especially in recent years.
In June 2022, inflation reached 9.1%, according to the BLS.
A year later, it was around 3%.
By September of 2024, itd fallen to 2.4%.
Trump Won the Election
What happened on Nov. 5, 2024, cant be overlooked either.
In reaction to Trumps win, the S&P 500s earnings grew by 13% over the year.
On election day, earnings were at $5,783.
Less than a week later, they were at $6,001 and have been steadily increasing since.
Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury securities (10-year constant maturity) also went up.
On Nov. 4, it was at 4.31.
The day after the election, it was at 4.42.
Bitcoin has also seen a significant increase.
On Nov. 4, it was at $69,122.
The day after the election, itd risen to $74,446 and has continued to rise ever since.
Earnings for the largest U.S. companies rose by 5.8% over the past 12 months.
Wall Street, by comparison, only expected a 3.5% increase.
Gigantic Layoffs
Unfortunately, its not all been good news.
In 2024, many major companies saw an increase in mass layoffs.
According to R&D World, 526 major companies across different sectors were impacted by these layoffs.
The combined number of layoffs numbers nearly 150,000.
Even Amazon was affected, having cut its staff by 9,000.
Whats worth noting is the overall national unemployment rate.
By midway through 2022, itd fallen to 3.7%.
Its risen somewhat since then to 4.2%.
Generally, a higher rate means lenders will set higher interest rates as well.
This in turn leads to increased financing costs and greater overall interest payments.
As of November 2024, the federal funds rate is 4.58%.
For most of 2024, it was 5.33%.
This overall decrease could be a good sign for those seeking a mortgage or other forms of financing.
Its fallen by 0.35% year-over-year.
For 15-year fixed-rate mortgage loans, the average rate is 5.84%, a 0.54% one-year decrease.
Although interest rates have gone down slightly, housing prices have not.
The median existing home sales price is $407,200.
A year ago, it was $391,600.
During this time, existing home sales also increased by 3.4%.
That could include replacing U.S. government agency leadership with personnel less inclined toward heavy regulation.
However, only time will tell.
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