For investors and the inflation sensitive, 2022 was a bad year
Posted By RichC on December 31, 2022
If you were filling your tank, paying to keep the lights on or buying groceries (or shopping for nearly everything) … 2022 has been a struggle. If you were saving for college or retirement, it was also very painful. Will 2023 be a continuation or a painful recession … or is there a chance inflation retreats and the stock market recovers?
With prices rising at the fastest pace in 40 years, the Federal Reserve and other central banks aggressively tightened monetary policy. The result was a painful series of interest-rate hikes that hammered stock valuations and raised fears of recession. That, in turn, fueled a selloff that claimed the technology sector darlings of the past decade as its greatest casualty.
The Dow has fallen less than 9% this year, protected by resilient value stocks in the index. But the S&P 500 has shed nearly 20% and the Nasdaq is down 33%. All three indexes fell into a bear market, although the Dow finished the year in bull territory.
It was the worst year for the stock market since 2008, with volatility to match: The S&P 500 saw 46 daily moves of 2% or more in either direction, the most since the 2008-09 financial crisis.
Full story on Barronsonline
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