Its the start of a new Trading Year, although most markets are closed or barely ticking along so its a good time to have a look at where they went last year. Share markets as a whole suffered a fairly significant bear market with Wall Street down the most, while currencies had to battle a resurgent USD throughout most of the year before a late rebound as US inflation looks like moderating. Commodities had to withstand the war in Ukraine and the subsequent energy crisis in Europe that looks like abating, while gold went along for both the currency and commodity ride.
Looking at share markets in Asia first, where the Shanghai Composite finished 15% lower at 3089 points while the Hang Seng Index fell a similar amount, down 15% to the 19781 point level. It could have been a lot worse if it wasn’t for the zero-COVID reversal policy as the weekly chart below showed a deep dive below the 15000 point level that was only arrested later in the year:
Japanese stock markets were effectively trading sideways all year but if you step back its part of a larger secular bear market pattern with the Nikkei 225 losing just below 10% for the calendar year, finishing at 26094 points:
The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers