Year of the Pig is Historically the Best Year For the S&P 500 🐖

What we’re showing

This graphic shows the average S&P 500 return (calendar year) for each animal in the Chinese zodiac calendar. Returns were sourced from Macrotrends, and cover the period 1928 to 2024.

Note: 2025 is a Year of the Snake.

Oink oink! 🐷

The Year of the Pig is a symbol of luck, wealth, and fertility—so it’s fitting that these years have also seen the highest average S&P 500 return since 1928. 

The most recent Year of the Pig was 2019, in which the S&P 500 climbed an impressive +28.9%. 

Neigh! 🐴

The Year of the Horse, on the other hand, is the worst-performing year on average. 

While this doesn’t mean that all Horse years are bad, 2 out of the last 3 haven’t been great for the S&P 500:

• 2014: +11.4%
• 2002: -23.4% (downturn as a result of 9/11 attacks and accounting scandals)
• 1990: -6.6% (early 1990s recession)