It’s hard to believe that yet another year has passed us by. As I age, my parents’ comments about time moving faster as one gets older are beginning to ring so true. No doubt last year will go down as another one of the more challenging years in recent memory. The fact that it has ended may be the best aspect of ringing in the new year.
While we did see the primary impact of COVID-19 finally begin to wane, this was quickly replaced with supply chain challenges, difficulties in determining the proper office/home balance, a new COVID variant, and rampant inflation.
Despite all of these issues, businesses in many industries continue to adapt, finding ways to ultimately overcome the obstacles that would normally lead to business contraction. Taking the stock market as an example, corporate earnings continued to be strong and retail sales at the end of 2021 set new records. All of this contributed to annualized returns of 28.7% and 20.7% for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, respectively. However, history has demonstrated that like any industry, the overall market is cyclical. As a result, the market run we have experienced over the last 10 years is likely to come to an end at some point. Is 2022 the year?
Read the remainder of this blog at The Imaging Channel Website