How local stocks did in 2018 The market value of the stock-traded companies in the Chattanooga area plunged during 2018 by more than $18 billion * Miller Industries rose 4.7 percent to $27 per share * Covenant Transport declined 33.2 percent to $19.20 per share * Unum Group dropped 46.5 percent to $29.38 per share * Astec Industries fell by 48.4 percent to $30.19 per share * Mohawk Industries declined by 57.4 percent to $166.96 per share * CBL Properties fell by 66.1 percent to $1.92 per share * U.S. Xpress Enterprises dropped 66.4 percent from its first day closing in June to $5.61 per share* * Dixie Group plunged 81.7 percent to below 71 cents per share * U.S. Xpress became a publicly traded company in June and closed its first day of trading at $16.68 Source: NYSE, Nasdaq exchanges comparing Monday’s close with the 2017 close a year earlier.

The market value of Chattanooga's publicly traded companies collectively plunged by nearly $18.9 billion during 2018, erasing more than half the stock market value for half of the local stock-traded firms and a third or more for most of the rest in the past 12 months.

A volatile year with higher interest rates and a slowdown in housing starts and brick-and-mortar retail stores proved costly for investors in Chattanooga-based companies with publicly traded stock.

After rising amid the bull market for most of the past eight years, Chattanooga companies suffered their worst total dollar-volume losses in history during 2018.

Only one of the eight publicly traded companies in the Chattanooga area gained in the market for all of 2018. Miller Industries, the Ooltewah-based tow truck carrier, rose a modest 4.7 percent in 2018 after declining slightly the previous year. Miller still remains less than 27 percent of its peak value reached in 1997.

The two local stock-traded carpet manufacturers — Mohawk Industries and Dixie Group— both shed more than half of their market value as investors worried over the impact of higher interest rates and import tariffs and lower construction activity and a shift from soft to hard surface flooring.

Mohawk, the Calhoun, Georgia-based carpet maker that was the most valuable company in the region, rose nearly five-fold in the previous eight years prior to 2018. But Mohawk erased more than 57 percent of its market value last year after earning in the fall quarter fell below expectations and investors worried about rising labor and borrowing costs and flat or even falling demand for carpets.

Dixie Group, which moved into headquarters from Chattanooga to Dalton, Georgia in a cost-cutting move, had the biggest drop in stock prices of any local firm, falling nearly 82 percent during 2018.

Share in Unum, the world's biggest disability insurer, plunged by more than 17 percent one day in May over investor concerns about cost of long-term care policies and ended the year at only about half the share price of the beginning of 2018. Although rising interest rates usually help insurers with their investment portfolio, Unum shares declined over concerns about future earnings following the record profits for the company in 2017.

Chattanooga added another publicly traded company to its stock mix last year when U.S. Xpress Enterprises, one of the nation's largest long-haul trucking companies, returned to stock ownership with a public offering in June that raised more than $250 million of new equity capital to help pay down debt and position the company to better grow in some key markets. But after closing at the end of the first day of trading the new stock at $16.68 per share, U.S. Xpress has traded lower ever since and closed the end of the year at only about a third of the peak value reached in June.

CBL Properties, the Chattanooga-based shopping center developer, also shed nearly two thirds of its market value during the past year as investors worried about the bankruptcy of major retailers like Sears and the shopping shift from regional shoppings to online merchants. CBL is repositioning its malls and retail properties as "suburban town centers" with more restaurants, medical facilities, offices and other uses. But after cutting its dividend and reporting lower profit margins, investors bid down the value of CBL.

For all the selling of Chattanooga companies last year, investment advisor Joe Franklin, president of Franklin Wealth Management LLC in Chattanooga, cautioned investors not to lose faith in the stock market. In a year-end report released Monday, Franklin likened investing during December to "traversing an icy mountain stream.

"It delivered a staggering shock to the senses that triggered the instinct to, "Get Out!" he said.

But for most investors, that would not be a smart course, noting that downturns are temporary and markets rebound.

"Consider December 26. It was the best day for stocks in nearly a decade," Franklin said. "Investors who were not invested in stocks missed an opportunity to participate in a market rebound."