So, most of us survived 2021: some caught the Covid virus, suffered its afflictions, and have returned to a somewhat normal life. Most of us have been vaccinated and boosted, excepting the science deniers and their ilk. Were you invested in the "market"? Or were you sitting on the sidelines, again? However you answered the last 2 questions will reveal your thoughts on the compiled results of all investments made across the board in 2021.
The Mayor relies heavily on the Wall Street Journal for financial information. While not the only publication followed, to be sure, it does provide a consistent format tat one can rely on for insight, depth, and credible opinions focused on finance-public and private(there's a difference).
How would you feel if the currency of the country you lead dropped 44.17%? The Turkish Lira dropped that much in 12 months. Pres. Erdogan: does he still have a job? And why? The fool won't listen and the people suffer.
Maybe you thought precious metals would respond to inflationary moves of interest rates? Hmmm: Gold -off 3.47%, Silver -off 11.41%, Platinum off 10.32%. Now these are commonly followed commodities; some not so common, such as metals used for battery production, are way, way up. What of others: Copper-up 26.78%; Sugar 21.89%(how sweet is that?); and Corn up 22.57%. Precious metals ended the year with a slide that marked the largest fall in share prices in over 6 years. The big miners: Newmont, Barrick Gold, and Van Eck Gold Miners ETF were all down either 3.8%; 10.2%, or 14.5%. Not pretty.
And then, maybe you liked stocks a whole lot, or not. But if you did, then bully for you. Seems hardly a day went bye without a new record high. The trend line for the S&P 500 is definitely going up, up, and up. Wheeeeeeeee. Apple, the company, tickled an evaluation of over $3 trillion dollars. The company is worth more than many large American companies COMBINED!!!
Maybe you like funds. Did you own some QQQ? Hope so: for the year this long established fund did well: 26.8% for the Year. Its offshoot, the ProSharesULtraProQQQ: was up an amazing 83.8%. Good work! Maybe the Spyder S&P500: 27%. Nice.
Or simply old reliables: NOKIA(really?): brought in 59.1%(on a jump of 2.31 for the year). As we know, the vast majority of investments are made by institutions, pension funds(state and private), governments, and government-run institutions. Sovereign investments are often categorized separately, but add to the number of institutional investors. So, private individuals make up less than 25% of investors.
2022 could be another challenging year; 2022 will be another challenging year. Case rates are exploding across the country with numbers exceeding 500,000 per day or more this week. Schools are finding it difficult to open or go remote. Only time will tell what works. Traveling has opened again; but difficulties persist as staffing has become a big problem as workers call in sick.
The Winter Olympics are in China and should begin in late February in Beijing. Will the Games begin? It's anybody's guess at this point as athletes weigh their chances of getting infected either at the Games or enroute and have to quarantine according to China's draconian rules.
We'll see.
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