Worst first-half-of-the-year for US stock markets in 50 years

😑Worst first-half-of-the-year for US stock markets in 50 years🤪

 

North American Stocks markets finished the first half of the year as the worst in the last 50 years, with US S&P 500 and Canada’s S&P/TSX losing 19.74% and 10.34% this year. The tech sectors are the worst beaten on the higher interest rates and elevated risk of recession, with Nasdaq losing 28.87% year to date. 

 

The better performance of the Canadian markets comes mainly from the whopping over 40% return from the energy sector, which accounts for over 18% of the Canadian benchmark. In comparison, the US leading benchmark has only 4.4% of the companies listed in the energy sector.

 

The awful performance spans the global markets, with the MSCI world equity index down 19.65% year to date. Developed and emerging economies showed similar negative performance where DMs were driven by the US lackluster play and EMs mainly on the back of lagging China.

 

On the FX side, the US dollar remains the strongest performer in 2022, adding 7.8%, and the Japanese Yen losing 15.2% as the worst major currency against the greenback. 

 

Commodity prices remain elevated this year with divergence in their trend. While WTI and Brent prices gained over 45% in 2022, industrial metals lost 12%.

 

The Crypto market was probably the least favorite of the first half, with Bitcoin and Ethereum down 54% and 67%, pushing even many early investors into a loss.