The last days of 2021 are witnessing positive developments in the face of Corona and the mutant Omicron, with the United States licensing a new anti-viral drug from Pfizer, but the whole year will remain in the memory of investors for a long time.
Some of what happened in it was not surprising, but many of its events broke all expectations and records.
Despite the continuing chapters of the Corona pandemic, supply chain problems and high inflation, the markets recorded strong gains due to the huge liquidity that central banks continued to pump since the beginning of the pandemic.
The S&P 500 index broke records in more than 60 sessions, outperforming European and Asian indices. As for the Chinese stock market, its gains were limited due to the restrictions that we saw on the private sector and the debt crisis of the real estate company Evergrande, and the Hong Kong stock exchange declined since the beginning of the year.
In currencies, the dollar strongly outperformed other major currencies, with inflation reaching its highest levels in nearly 40 years, fueling market expectations for a rate hike. This reflected negatively on gold and silver because they are assets that do not give interest.
As for Bitcoin, despite the strong fluctuations and declines since record levels, it remained one of the best performing assets in 2021.
In the energy markets, the gas crisis in Europe raised its prices by fantastic rates, and oil recorded good gains with the recovery of demand and the gradual increase in the production of “OPEC +”.
