John Hancock: Weekly Market Recap Week Ended December 31st

A year of superlatives

Despite the pandemic’s persistence and rising inflation, 2021 was the third consecutive year of double-digit percentage gains for the S&P 500, and the index posted 70 record closing highs. Adding in results from 2019 and 2020, it’s been the best three-year run for the major U.S. stock indexes since the three-year period that ended in 1999.

Sector stories

The year saw wide disparities in U.S. equity performance at the sector level. With one trading day left, energy was the top-performing S&P 500 sector with a nearly 55% return, followed by real estate (46%) and information technology (35%). Utilities generated the weakest result with a nearly 18% gain, followed by consumer staples (19%) and industrials (21%). 

As January goes …

Historically, January’s stock market performance has been a strong indicator of what may be in store for the rest of the year. In fact, 71% of the time the S&P 500 has posted a positive return for the year after gaining ground in January or has gone on to post an annual loss when the market has declined in the first month, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Jobs ahead

A monthly labor market update due out on Friday is likely to be the most closely watched economic report in the first week of 2022. The new release covering December follows a report that showed the economy generated 210,000 job in November—far below economists’ consensus forecast—while the unemployment rate fell sharply, from 4.6% to 4.2%.

Source: https://wmr.jhinvestments.com/