Happy New Year, and welcome back to the first Weekly Investment News of 2022. Markets dive straight in with some important economic releases later this week (more info below), but there was little to talk about in the shortened last week of 2021 – although markets did rally into year end. With that in mind the below are some stats we have come across over the last number days. Purely for interest sake, and in no particular order:
- The S&P 500 closed at a 52 week high the week of Christmas, however 334 of its constituents were at 52 week lows, a level of divergence not seen this century.
- The S&P 500 saw 70 new all-time highs in 2021. Only 1995 has seen more.
- There was only one 5% market pullback during 2021, the historical average is nearly three.
- In 2021, Bitcoin consumed 134 TWh in energy, which is comparable to the entire electrical energy consumed by Argentina.
- More than half of all people buying Bitcoin did so for the first time in 2021.
- China Baowu, the world’s largest steelmaker, created more CO₂ emissions last year than Pakistan.
- The top three Irish stocks traded by retail investors last year were Bank of Ireland, AIB, and Ryanair.
- Bloomberg’s most read article of the year was on New Year’s Eve in relation to Omicron.
- Growth actually outperformed Value stocks on a global basis in 2021.
- And finally, at about a quarter to seven last night, Apple briefly became the first company in the world to be worth $3 trillion.
For full details of last weeks’ market movements and economic news:
