The Globe’s stars and dogs for 2018
FOR Utopia
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Well, that was a rough one. For investors, 2018 was the year it all went down – stocks, bonds, commodities – very little was spared the carnage. The year was essentially book-ended by broad market corrections, between which there was a meltdown in the Canadian energy market and a sell-off in big-name U.S. tech stocks, leaving the bull market looking more vulnerable than it has in recent memory. As a tumultuous year draws to a close, here is a final look at the stars and dogs of 2018.
Facebook (DOG)
FACEBOOK INC126.31-50.15 (-28.42%)
YEAR TO DATE
JAN. 2
181.42
DEC. 21
126.31
SOURCE: BARCHART
It all started so honourably, as a competition between former high-school acquaintances over who has the fullest, most rewarding life as evidenced by travel photos, promotion announcements and posts about the joys of parenthood. But after engaging more than one-quarter of humanity in this daily, demoralizing culture war, Facebook took a dark turn. How dark? By giving outside developers access to user data, the company allowed a quiz app to harvest tens of millions of profiles, which were then used by a consulting firm working on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. While Facebook has committed to fixing its security problems, a continued string of data breaches is resulting in intensifying political scrutiny and calls for boycotts. It’s unclear, however, how disillusioned users who choose to leave the platform will inform the world they are feeling blessed. -Tim Shufelt
FB - Nasdaq
Bitcoin Futures (DOG)
Bitcoin
In U.S. dollars
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
14,000
16,000
$18,000
Jan.
2018
Mar.
May
July
Sept.
Nov.
13624.56
THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: BLOOMBERG
DATASHARE×
Date Last Price
2018-01-01 13624.56
2018-01-02 14784.6
2018-01-03 15055.23
2018-01-04 14946.35
2018-01-05 16753.23
2018-01-08 14935.69
2018-01-09 14554.08
2018-01-10 14494.74
2018-01-11 13462.98
2018-01-12 13746.58
2018-01-15 13916.82
2018-01-16 10720
2018-01-17 11376.69
2018-01-18 11605.5
2018-01-19 11366.61
2018-01-22 10354
2018-01-23 10981.04
2018-01-24 11213.37
2018-01-25 11256.52
2018-01-26 10874.79
2018-01-29 11206.99
2018-01-30 10086.79
2018-01-31 9962.31
2018-02-01 9094.2
2018-02-02 8570
2018-02-05 7100.87
2018-02-06 7764.6
2018-02-07 8087.51
2018-02-08 8171.19
2018-02-09 8552.65
2018-02-12 8831.25
2018-02-13 8557.91
2018-02-14 9287.96
2018-02-15 9873.45
2018-02-16 10088.2
2018-02-19 11081.41
2018-02-20 11705.72
2018-02-21 10286.84
2018-02-22 9915.69
2018-02-23 9920.01
2018-02-26 10380.3
2018-02-27 10755.9
2018-02-28 10538.02
2018-03-01 10933.75
2018-03-02 11029.95
2018-03-05 11555.99
2018-03-06 10790.35
2018-03-07 9939.53
2018-03-08 9330.23
2018-03-09 9004.84
2018-03-12 9017.65
2018-03-13 9062.92
2018-03-14 8304.32
2018-03-15 8251.71
2018-03-16 8524.17
2018-03-19 8427.2
2018-03-20 8920.33
2018-03-21 8895.59
2018-03-22 8598.85
2018-03-23 8616.25
2018-03-26 7888.84
2018-03-27 7990.87
2018-03-28 7906.96
2018-03-29 7098.13
2018-03-30 6852.51
2018-04-02 6937.38
2018-04-03 7401.4
2018-04-04 6830.75
2018-04-05 6749.55
2018-04-06 6604.48
2018-04-09 6662.14
2018-04-10 6839.62
2018-04-11 6891.03
2018-04-12 7730.47
2018-04-13 7903.91
2018-04-16 7986.05
2018-04-17 7914.7
2018-04-18 8187.53
2018-04-19 8233.85
2018-04-20 8524.52
2018-04-23 8932.25
2018-04-24 9449.88
2018-04-25 9073.19
2018-04-26 9118.96
2018-04-27 8977.07
2018-04-30 9272.7
2018-05-01 9015.73
2018-05-02 9175.76
2018-05-03 9652.04
2018-05-04 9683.54
2018-05-07 9437.62
2018-05-08 9160.97
2018-05-09 9248.19
2018-05-10 9092.67
2018-05-11 8432.01
2018-05-14 8811.66
2018-05-15 8518.75
2018-05-16 8291.22
2018-05-17 8204.05
2018-05-18 8229.58
2018-05-21 8406.89
2018-05-22 8108.52
2018-05-23 7590
2018-05-24 7552.45
2018-05-25 7448.08
2018-05-28 7214.8
2018-05-29 7501.54
2018-05-30 7337.26
2018-05-31 7538.28
2018-06-01 7437.74
2018-06-04 7525.77
2018-06-05 7629.53
2018-06-06 7619.32
2018-06-07 7660.06
2018-06-08 7646.28
2018-06-11 6760.89
2018-06-12 6531.39
2018-06-13 6260.96
2018-06-14 6658.78
2018-06-15 6497.97
2018-06-18 6727.55
2018-06-19 6695.44
2018-06-20 6748.89
2018-06-21 6719.46
2018-06-22 6070.19
2018-06-25 6250.81
2018-06-26 6181.63
2018-06-27 6124.96
2018-06-28 6044.92
2018-06-29 5899.63
2018-07-02 6620.01
2018-07-03 6613.86
2018-07-04 6686.22
2018-07-05 6507.68
2018-07-06 6570.76
2018-07-09 6695.86
2018-07-10 6387.83
2018-07-11 6354.19
2018-07-12 6172.95
2018-07-13 6185.23
2018-07-16 6661.85
2018-07-17 7314
2018-07-18 7336.6
2018-07-19 7418.82
2018-07-20 7351.07
2018-07-23 7702.88
2018-07-24 8227.05
2018-07-25 8176.35
2018-07-26 8138.47
2018-07-27 8225.12
2018-07-30 8146.15
2018-07-31 7689.43
2018-08-01 7482.23
2018-08-02 7546.53
2018-08-03 7388.58
2018-08-06 6919.84
2018-08-07 6877.76
2018-08-08 6316.9
2018-08-09 6507.67
2018-08-10 6191.24
2018-08-13 6277.69
2018-08-14 6074.26
2018-08-15 6374.87
2018-08-16 6255.1
2018-08-17 6480.85
2018-08-20 6455.22
2018-08-21 6451.86
2018-08-22 6331.13
2018-08-23 6418.67
2018-08-24 6611.44
2018-08-27 6719.04
2018-08-28 7083.46
2018-08-29 7042.05
2018-08-30 6916.68
2018-08-31 7044.6
2018-09-03 7298.59
2018-09-04 7361.57
2018-09-05 6949.01
2018-09-06 6440.22
2018-09-07 6446.92
2018-09-10 6301.63
2018-09-11 6253.25
2018-09-12 6305.47
2018-09-13 6467.46
2018-09-14 6535.01
2018-09-17 6216.01
2018-09-18 6317.7
2018-09-19 6423.81
2018-09-20 6377.21
2018-09-21 6708.69
2018-09-24 6626.29
2018-09-25 6386.6
2018-09-26 6497.71
2018-09-27 6694.08
2018-09-28 6643.42
2018-10-01 6550.06
2018-10-02 6524.3
2018-10-03 6438.41
2018-10-04 6546.01
2018-10-05 6539.04
2018-10-08 6623.01
2018-10-09 6579.83
2018-10-10 6534.38
2018-10-11 6204.33
2018-10-12 6214.23
2018-10-15 6390.7
2018-10-16 6460.38
2018-10-17 6437.85
2018-10-18 6392.22
2018-10-19 6384.37
2018-10-22 6413.51
2018-10-23 6390.78
2018-10-24 6425.61
2018-10-25 6400.44
2018-10-26 6401.99
2018-10-29 6243.46
2018-10-30 6265.27
2018-10-31 6302.4
2018-11-01 6335.36
2018-11-02 6351.1
2018-11-05 6400.96
2018-11-06 6420.95
2018-11-07 6501.65
2018-11-08 6419.5
2018-11-09 6326.2
2018-11-12 6309.96
2018-11-13 6280.73
2018-11-14 5551.06
2018-11-15 5469.65
2018-11-16 5451.72
2018-11-19 4785.54
2018-11-20 4337.68
2018-11-21 4450.42
2018-11-22 4427.83
2018-11-23 4260.57
2018-11-26 3663.84
2018-11-27 3767.36
2018-11-28 4221.02
2018-11-29 4183.58
2018-11-30 3930.38
2018-12-03 3870.96
2018-12-04 3898.03
2018-12-05 3723.53
2018-12-06 3596.41
2018-12-07 3388.91
2018-12-10 3400.92
2018-12-11 3373.78
2018-12-12 3440.17
2018-12-13 3254.81
2018-12-14 3156.89
2018-12-17 3493.65
2018-12-18 3535.18
2018-12-19 3668.85
2018-12-20 3993.58
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A description of bitcoin making the rounds on Twitter captures the cryptocurrency nicely: “Imagine if keeping your car idling 24/7 produced solved Sudokus you could trade for heroin.” Despite mass misunderstanding of how bitcoin works, it took on an unprecedented public profile last year when its price exploded to more than US$18,000. Criticisms over the high energy requirements for mining bitcoins, as well as its potential use in financing terrorism and the illegal drug trade, were mere background noise to what was seen by bitcoin faithful as the rise of a currency of the future. Its most enthusiastic supporters often share a distrust of governments and central banks, and, by extension, traditional fiat currency. That vision of bitcoin, however, is undermined by its wild volatility, which was on full display this year. Down by more than 70 per cent, it’s difficult to argue that bitcoin is a good store of value, even if it’s heroin you’re buying. -Tim Shufelt
BTZ18
TSX Energy Stocks (DOG)
TSX ENERGY CAPPED INDEX133.12-59.87 (-31.02%)
YEAR TO DATE
JAN. 2
197.43
DEC. 21
133.12
SOURCE: BARCHART
There was one hell of an early Black Friday sale in the oil patch last month – a barrel of Alberta crude could be yours for the low, low price of just US$13.46. Some things that cost more than that: the average paperback, a litre of maple syrup or a decent lunch in downtown Toronto. An extraordinary confluence of bad fortune pushed Canadian oil prices to their lowest levels on record this year. A clogged pipeline network, refinery outages, a global relapse into oversupply, concerns over demand weakness, and record Canadian production all conspired to rack the energy sector with the worst downturn since the oil-induced recession. As a result, all but one oil and gas producer in the S&P/TSX Composite Index declined on the year, with MEG Energy Corp. posting a gain mainly by virtue of a takeover bid from Husky Energy Inc. Little for energy investors to celebrate, let alone all those kids with barrels of bitumen sitting under the tree. -Tim Shufelt
TTEN