New Year's Eve is celebrated in Times Square.
The story was written byKeith BEDFORD.
Global shares were little changed on Friday in the final trading day of the year, which has seen stocks hit record highs and cryptocurrencies surge into mainstream finance.
The All-World Index was up just over 1%, just shy of a record high. The stock market has attracted trillions of dollars of investment this year due to ultra-low interest rates, cheap central bank cash, and a boom in economic activity.
This combination has boosted commodities and cryptocurrencies, many of which have hit all-time or multi-year highs, adding to a global surge in inflation.
The environment in 2022 will be very different. The central banks are trying to stop the economy from overheating. The Omicron outbreak has served as a stark reminder of the impact of the coronaviruses on everyday life, as governments have rushed in new restrictions and increased their vaccine efforts.
Joshua Mahony, a market strategist at broker IG, said that market sentiment continues to straddle fears of near-term Covid restrictions and expectations of a swift recovery.
He said that the move towards higher rates and higher yields should bring a rare period of outperformance for value names once the Omicron wave ends.
The S&P 500, the Nasdaq 100, and the Dow Jones were all unchanged. The S&P 500 is heading for a 27% gain this year, thanks to rallies in the natural resources, finance, and tech sectors. On Thursday, the index hit a record high.
"This move suggests traders are shifting away from broader market concerns and starting to pay attention to the pending Q4:2021 earnings and revenue data and the 2021 Annual Data that will hit over the next 30 to 60+ days," trader Chris Vermeulen wrote for FXEmpire.
Most European stock markets were closed for the New Year's holiday. The UK markets close at 12:30 p.m. The midcap FTSE 250 fell 2%) while the benchmark FTSE 100 was down 0.4%. Most Asian markets were closed, except for mainland China, where the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.6%.
On the day, crude oil was down, with the price of crude falling by 0.4% to hold around $76.75 a barrel.
The energy complex has surged this year due to a combination of demand and under investment in new supply. The value of crude oil, natural gas, and coal have all gone up.
At last check, it was up 3.5%. Since hitting an all-time high of $69,000 in early November, the world's most widely traded criptocurrency has almost halved in value, but with a gain of 67% in 2021, it's comfortably outperformed by stocks and most commodity markets.
Business Insider has an original article.
