Asset Allocation Outlook January

2022 will go down as an exceedingly difficult year for investors. Almost all the general asset classes noted losses, often in excess of 10% based on total returns. And there wasn’t even an end-of-year rally to cheer investors. The equity rally that had started in October stalled at the beginning of December. In the final month of the year the MSCI global equity index fell by 4.0% , with industrialised nations (-4.3%) dropping by slightly more than emerging markets (-1.6%). The losses in the US (-5.9%) and Japan (-4.7%) were larger than those in the Eurozone (-3.5%) and UK (-1.6%). The culprits were uncertainty about economic growth, downward adjustments to earnings expectations and rising interest rates.