Will 2025 be a goldilocks year for investors?

The full-time whistle (or horn, if you're a hockey fan like me) is about to be blown on a market year that confounded all the consensus expectations. Luckily, it was for all the best reasons.

As the below table shows, the S&P 500 has climbed 27% and has recorded 57 all-time highs this year (as of time of writing.) Corporate bonds have held up despite weaker earnings while gold has reset its own all-time high repeatedly thanks to immense central bank buying. Even Bitcoin has just cracked US$100,000 per unit. 

So, will 2024 go down as the last inning of a two-year long bull market run for investors? 

Not if you believe AMP Deputy Chief Economist and Signal or Noise's very own Diana Mousina. Mousina offered that next year will likely be a year of "Goldilocks" returns for investors.

"Central banks will be in a slow interest rate cutting cycle, but that's not a bad scenario for share markets," she said. 

"But in general, a Goldilocks environment shouldn't be too bad at all for a diversified portfolio."

To find out if the rest of the panel will share Mousina's views and what their own predictions are for markets next year, we are delighted to be bringing you the last Signal or Noise episode of the season. Joining me and Mousina are a show returnee and a show newbie:

• Stephen Miller, Investment Strategy Advisor at GSFM and Investment Committee Member at QIC
• Simon Clark, Equities Strategist at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management

In this final episode of the year, we'll also discuss what Donald Trump's re-election is a signal for, whether the Chinese government has finally issued enough stimulus to entice investors back into that market. Plus, stick around to the end as each panellist shares with us their chart of the year!