Inflation, War In Ukraine, China And Crypto To Rattle Markets: CNN

Nicole Goodkind of CNN Business has cautioned everyone that the major market-shaping stories of 2022 will continue to haunt investors this year and warned that the silver lining may not even be on the horizon in a world dominated by crazies wielding power, or seeking to regain power.

Photo Insert: The crypto world was also rattled this year by the shocking death spiral of digital currency exchange FTX and the subsequent indictment of its founder Sam Bankman-Fried on eight criminal charges including fraud and conspiracy.

In the US, one good news is that some states have raised the minimum wage after realizing that no country in the country would allow citizens to decently live on $15 an hour.

In her piece for “Before the Bell,” Goodkind said inflation will not evaporate overnight after it drove central banks to increase interest rates more than 300 times. In the US, inflation hit a four-decade peak in June, at 9.1% and the Federal Reserve hiked rates aggressively in response.

By the end of the year, Fed officials increased the rate that banks charge each other for overnight borrowing to a range of 4.25%-4.5%, the highest since 2007. Yet, a recession is imminent.

China's zero-COVID policy has kept large swaths of the country shutdown for significant periods of time over the past three years — choking business and frustrating citizens and global trade alike.

Now, Beijing is pivoting from its strict policy protocol and expectations are high for the world's second-largest economy. But the process of reopening is likely to be erratic, according to economists. They expect the country's economy is in for a bumpy ride this year.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began a war that would drive global food and fuel prices sky-high. Now, an energy crisis is gripping Europe. International Energy Agency (IEA) chief Fatih Birol and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have warned that Europe could face a natural gas shortage of 27 billion cubic meters in 2023.

That's equivalent to nearly 7% of the region's annual consumption. Russia, which sent about 60 billion cubic meters of gas to the European Union over the course of 2022, could halt flows entirely. It could also slash oil production in response to a Western price cap. It was a very bad year for crypto.

Bitcoin's value fell by more than 64% in 2022 as the Fed raised interest rates and investors settled into their risk-off, bear market strategies.

The crypto world was also rattled this year by the shocking death spiral of digital currency exchange FTX and the subsequent indictment of its founder Sam Bankman-Fried on eight criminal charges including fraud and conspiracy.

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