Op-ed: Energy and health care are attractive sectors to watch the rest of the year

Op-ed: Energy and health care are attractive sectors to watch the rest of the year

Today's investment landscape appears bleak, seemingly plagued by a host of factors, including mounting , rising , an economic contraction during the first quarter and a war in that has exasperated already lingering supply-chain issues. Add it all together, and it's been a horrible year for stocks. The tech-heavy shed 13% in April, its worst month since the Financial Crisis, and has lost more than a quarter of its value this year. Other indexes have fared better, but not much. The is off nearly 12% thus far in 2022, while the is down more than 16%. Yet it's important to keep in mind that what spurred the market's descent was not a confluence of the issues mentioned above — it was the Federal Reserve. As 2021 drew to a close, fundamentals were reasonably solid. Corporate earnings growth remained strong; the labor market, though tight, was healthy and adding jobs; and consumer balance sheets were in good shape. However, at the beginning of January, policymakers began to signal that they would start to raise rates and rein in their bond-buying program. From that point, the S&P 500 began to tumble, shedding nearly 16% over the next four weeks. In retrospect, the