Investors are therefore moving away from risky assets while waiting for the usual macro data. Weekly unemployment figures have just been released by the Labor Department. First-time claims for weekly unemployment benefits rose to 225,000 for the week ended December 24, up from 216,000 the previous week. This data, which is in line with expectations and confirm that the Fed's policy is working, helped Wall Street indexes open in the green.

Since the news between Christmas and New Year's Day is not very dense, it's a good time to look back at 2022 and how market indexes performed globally.

 

Very few places have recorded a positive performance in 2022, so it is important to highlight them.

Congratulations to Portugal and Greece, whose national indexes have done very well this year because they are well endowed with energy stocks. Galp Energia (+47% in 2022), Motor Oil Hellas Corinth Refineries (+58%) or Hellenic Petroleum (+23%) have pulled the PSI20 and the Athex Composite index. But that's not all: utilities, telecoms and banks, typically the business areas neglected by investors over the last decade, have performed rather well this year, as evidenced by the annual performances of EDP - Energias de Portugal (-2%), Nos, SGPS (+11%) in Lisbon and Eurobank Ergasias (+17%) and the National Bank of Greece (+26%) on the Athens stock exchange. The London Stock Exchange is also doing well thanks to commodities, which is the best performing asset class for the second year in a row. Mega profits from Shell (+45%) and BP Plc (+44%) as well as strong gains from Glencore (+48%) and Rio Tinto (+19%) kept the FTSE100 afloat.

Among the honorable mentions, we note that the Copenhagen stock market has lost only 1.70% since January, just ahead of Sydney (-4.50%). This contrasts with the performance of Wall Street and China, which are paying a heavy price this year. You know the drill, if energy stocks and the most defensive sectors are at the forefront, as well as financial stocks, still buoyed by the prospect of rate hikes, tech stocks are at the bottom of the ranking. This mistrust of investors towards the former stars of the market continues this week, with investors reacting negatively to the slightest upset.

To my great surprise, the Swiss SMI, which has a reputation for being defensive, is down 16% this year. The most prolific stock market indexes this year are those of Turkey and Argentina, and not just a little bit, since the ISE 100 and the Merval Buenos Aires are far ahead of the others with annual gains of over 100%. But don't exchange your dollars for Turkish lira or Argentine pesos just yet, as this high is linked to another record, that of inflation, which is sweeping through these two economies and their respective currencies. Argentina is not only the soccer world champion, it is also the economy with one of the highest inflation rates in the world, with consumer price growth approaching 100% by 2022.

 

The day's economic highlights:

US weekly unemployment figures and oil inventories are on the agenda. All the macro agenda is  here. 

The dollar is stabilizing at EUR 0.9387 and GBP 0.8304. The ounce of gold is trading slightly above 1800 dollars. Oil is down with North Sea Brent at USD 82.19 per barrel and US WTI light crude at USD 77.23. The yield on 10-year U.S. debt rises to 3.86%. Bitcoin is trading at 16560 dollars per coin.

 

In corporate news:

* Tesla - The share of the car manufacturer, which lost nearly 70% of its value since the beginning of the year, continues Thursday its recovery by taking 3.6% in pre-trade after a gain the day before of 3.3%. Elon Musk, the CEO of the group, has also told employees not to worry about "the current stock market madness", believing that Tesla would be in the long term the best valued company in the world.

* Oil companies Exxon Mobil and Chevron each lost about 1% in premarket trading as oil prices fell on concerns about demand in China, which is facing a major resurgence of the COVID-19 epidemic.

* The U.S. administration will introduce a tax credit starting Jan. 1 to encourage delivery and logistics companies to switch to electric vehicles.

 

Analyst recommendations:

CarMax: Morgan Stanley is long but has lowered its target from USD 90 to USD 75.

Danaher: Baptista Research LLP initiated coverage with a recommendation of hold. PT set to $29.

Illinois Tool: Baptista Research LLP initiated coverage with a recommendation of hold. PT set to $240.

Next: Jefferies raises price target to 5,700 pence, from 5,500 pence - Maintains hold rating.

Tesla: Morgan Stanley is still Buy but is lowering its target from USD 330 to USD 250.