Crossmark Global Investments, a faith-based investment management firm, today revealed its 2022 predictions for markets and the economy from industry veteran and the firm’s Chief Investment Officer, Bob Doll.
For over thirty years, Bob has published an annual set of 10 predictions previewing key themes and his outlook for the year ahead, including risks for equity markets, monetary policy, and the global economy. These predictions will help inform portfolio allocation decisions across Crossmark Global Investments’ suite of values-based investment strategies.
“The reopening of the economy combined with increasing consumer confidence and strong corporate earnings has allowed the market to soar to new highs this year,” said Bob Doll, Chief Investment Officer at Crossmark Global Investments. “However, uncertainty still remains for the equity market with the unpredictability of public health, high inflation that has lasted longer than expected, and an imminent rate increase. Because of this, we believe it will be tougher to see the same kind of returns in 2022,” he said.
This year’s theme focuses on the tug of war between the positive tailwinds from good earnings and the negative headwinds stemming from valuation pressure spurred by rising interest rates. Even amid the current economic climate, Bob believes we are likely to see interest rates move higher across the curve, slower earnings growth, and inflation that is still above average, but lower than what we’ve witnessed in 2021. While there is still a positive backdrop for markets heading into the new year, it is highly unlikely that we will see the same level of record-breaking gains.
