Fed’s hawkish pivot and Omicron rattle equities

Global equities struggled last week as negative Omicron variant headlines and a hawkish shift by the Federal Reserve weighed on sentiment. The S&P 500 fell 1.9%, with the energy, technology and consumer discretionary sectors declining the most. The Nasdaq tumbled nearly 3.0% on the prospect of rising rates, while the DJIA dropped 1.7%. Non-U.S. equity market benchmarks, including the MSCI EAFE (-0.5%), ACWI ex-USA (-0.9%) and EM (-1.8%) indexes, also lost ground.