Following increased volatility in the third quarter, the last quarter of 2021 brought an unnerving amount of optimism in the markets especially considering sky-high inflation readings, a hawkish Fed announcing moves to eliminate easy monetary policy from the past 10+ years, and concerns over the Omicron COVID-19 variant surge. Virtually all sectors ended the year strong during the fourth quarter of 2021 and benefitted from a December “Santa Claus rally” once again. The S&P 500 Index rose 10.65% during the fourth quarter to end the year up 26.89%. The tech-heavy NASDAQ closed out the year with an 8.28% gain for the quarter, almost all of which occurred in the month of October. In contrast to other indices, the NASDAQ squeezed out a mere 0.69% return in December. Furthermore, as we write this commentary, it is clear that was just the beginning of relative underperformance in the technology sector that would continue into the early weeks of 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the fourth quarter up 7.37% and 18.73% for the entire year.
Quarterly Commentary
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Bull|Bear InsightsQuarterly CommentaryQuarterly CommentaryWBI Insights
Volatility returns in Q3 as eyes remain on the Fed
Markets in Review After two quarters of rising equity markets through the beginning of this year, the third quarter brought increased volatility and flat to…
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Bull|Bear InsightsQuarterly CommentaryQuarterly CommentaryWBI Insights
Is there still value in value?
Markets in Review Equity markets continued their upward climb during the second quarter of this year. Following a solid first quarter, the S&P 500 Index…
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Bull|Bear InsightsQuarterly CommentaryQuarterly CommentaryWBI Insights
Should Markets Really Be This Optimistic?
Markets in Review After a strong finish last year, the S&P 500 Index gyrated most of the first quarter this year but ended up 5.77%,…
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Bull|Bear InsightsQuarterly CommentaryQuarterly CommentaryWBI Insights
Market Predictions vs. Guarantees: Why Investors Should Stay Mindful
Wall Street loves to make predictions about the future. As we write this, most large firms are publishing their annual outlook research for 2021. They…
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