Whoosh! Splat! '98 Had It All --- U.S.-Stock Funds Post Solid Results, Disguising Year's Turmoil and Drama
Corrections & Amplifications</br></br>TOTAL RETURNS for the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index reported in the Quarterly Mutual Funds Review on Jan. 7 were preliminary figures. The final figures are: 1998 fourth-quarter total return, 21.30%; one-year total return, 28.58%; three-year total return, 28.23%; five-year total return, 24.06%; 10-year total return, 19.21%. In addition, the cumulative five-year total return was 193.91%. The preliminary figures were provided by Lipper Inc. A table accompanying a Jan. 15 article on retirement-fund investing included some of these preliminary figures and wrongly indicated they were final figures provided by Morningstar Inc. (WSJ Jan. 28, 1999)</br></br>Wrapping up a year in which stock prices surged, swooned and then soared once more, diversified U.S.-stock funds ended 1998 with an average 14.52% total return.</br></br>That 1998 gain, as calculated by Lipper Inc. of Summit, N.J., is higher than many market watchers had expected at the beginning of the year -- and is right in line with the impressive 14.49% average annual gain for U.S.-stock funds over the past 15 years. But the 1998 advance was smaller than 1997's 24.36% average fund return and also lagged behind the 1998 gains of some widely watched market benchmarks.</br></br>The strong if unspectacular year-end number for stock funds obscures the high drama of mutual-fund investing in 1998.