After Monday’s turmoil, global stock markets see some calm – but will 2022 turn into ‘Year of the Bear’?

After Monday’s turmoil, global stock markets see some calm – but will 2022 turn into ‘Year of the Bear’?

Dubai: So, will this be the ‘Year of the Bear’? On Monday, the S&P 500 in the US slipped into ‘bear mode’, with the index down over 20 per cent from its January high. And in Asia early Tuesday, key indices – Nikkei, Hang Seng – are in the red, while India’s Sensex shed 1,400 points on Monday but started Tuesday trimming losses. So far, in Asia, it has not been a market bloodbath as many had feared. Clearly, investors, for now, seem to be taking a lot of hope from US stock futures trading in positive territory. The next 72 hours would then provide a better glimpse of where global stock markets, currencies and assets are likely to head, with the US Federal Reserve to announce another rate hike Thursday. Will this be the 0.50 per cent increase that everyone had been planning for since May? Or will the Fed feel the need to get more aggressive on rate hikes and go in for a 0.75 per cent increase? And match that with another hike in July? As always, when things turn dicey for markets, gold comes roaring back into contention. Gold prices dropped $50 an ounce in these