Outlook - January 2022

SUMMARY OF THE MONTH

Europe in 12 of the last 14 years has underperformed the U.S. market with a permanent underperformance for international investors.

Financial markets closed the year higher, fueled by the famous "Santa Claus" rally at the end of the year. The rally was supported by rallies in all sectors of the S&P 500, even as Omicron cases rose substantially.

As we stated in our previous report, the market reaction to the Omicron variant appears to be an overreaction, even though we are seeing a significant increase in cases globally.

Although there are more cases of COVID-19, according to data obtained by Mastercard company in the last month retail sales increased across the board. E-commerce sales increased by 11% compared to last year. In-store sales increased by 8.1%, which could have a positive effect for the earnings season in January.