Between North Korea, global populist uprisings and nearly nonstop political uncertainty, 2017 was a year of turbulence—except in stock markets. World stocks, as measured by the MSCI AC World Index, have risen every month this year so far. In fact, they haven’t had a down month since October 2016. If they were to close out December in the green, that would represent the first year ever without a single monthly decline, as noted by Jeffrey Kleintop, chief global investment strategist at Charles Schwab.Kleintop credited this move to improving corporate profitability, tweeting, “Why have global stocks gone up every month so far this year? Earnings have too (both actual and expected).” via