Wall Street Stock Market: 2022 has been the worst year for the US equity market since the global financial crisis of 2008. After the S&P 500 reached consecutive record highs in 2021, few predicted the stock market selloff in 2022. The fortunes of investors quickly reversed in January 2022 as the Federal Reserve showed its intention to rein in inflation. This led to the start of the most aggressive rate-hike path in decades, sending stocks and bonds tumbling all through last year.
Nasdaq 100 index performance in 2022 has been one of the worst in its history. The tech-heavy index ended more than 30% while S&P 500 was down by almost 20%. In comparison, the Dow 30 index decreased by about 9%, with gains of 15% over the last three months in 2022. While Wall Street was firmly mired in a bear market in 2022, quite a few bear market rallies were also seen in July and October of that year.
Some of the big US stocks fell heavily eroding multi-billion dollars in the carnage. Bespoke Investment Group in a tweet shares some numbers to get a feel of the market meltdown – “ Apple and Amazon were the biggest market cap losers in 2022, with each losing more than $830 billion in cap. Staggering numbers. $830 billion is more than 10 PayPals, 8 Intels, or 5 Disneys”.
Just six megacap companies, Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp., Tesla Inc., and Meta Platforms Inc., collectively lost $632 billion to $908 billion in market value, accounting for about half of the $9.1 trillion decline in the S&P 500 Index.
Apple, the largest market cap company in the world saw its stock price quashed by over 25%! Both, Tesla and Meta (Facebook parent) were lower by almost 65% from the levels last seen in January 2022.
Also Read – S&P 500 top gainers, losers: 2022 performance roundup
In general, 2022 was a disappointing year for investors, particularly for those whose portfolios were heavily weighted toward FAANG and other blue-chip stocks. All throughout the year, the only stocks that offered market investors any hope were those in the energy industry. Twelve stocks in the S&P 500 index closed the year up over 50%, with Occidental Petroleum Corporation and Hess Corporation leading the index with gains of 117% and 91%, respectively.
During 2022, stockholders in Warner Bros. and PayPal also suffered losses. Between 15 and 50 percent was lost by leading US stock market companies including Netflix, NVIDIA, Amazon, Intel, The Walt Disney, and many others.
Also Read – Dow 30 top gainers, losers: 2022 performance roundup
Few companies, including Merck, The Travelers Companies, Amgen, Caterpillar, and Coca-Cola, were able to weather the US stock market collapse and produce positive returns that outperformed the index. On the Dow 30 list of companies that generated above 50% in 2022, Chevron Corporation saw the largest increase.
Among the top losers of the Dow 30 in 2022 were Salesforce, Walt Disney, 3M Company, NIKE, Microsoft Corporation, and Verizon Communications. The Dow 30’s biggest loss, Intel Corporation, saw a nearly 50% decline in 2022.