In the past week, stock markets have whipsawed between rallying and selling off with at least two days of 3%+ gains in the NASDAQ being followed up with selloffs of 4-5% the next day. The recent behavior of stock prices has felt like a night on the dance floor at the Broken Spoke (but not in a fun way) with the market performing a Texas Two-Step dance of “One Step Forward and Two Steps Back”.
Q1 2022 Market Review
2022 got off to a rough start in Q1 as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rattled governments and financial markets alike. Supply chains that were already in stretched to their limits by the Covid pandemic have been further strained by sanctions enacted by many western countries as a protest to the Russian aggression. Commodity prices and interest rates were up however, indicitive of the inflationary pressures being felt worldwide and maybe most clearly indicated by the price of oil which is now over $100 per barrel.