Outlook 2022: Long-term perspective on markets and economies

As we head into a new year, it’s clear in hindsight that the market downturn of 2020 was short-lived and entirely related to the COVID-19 outbreak. In my view, that means the powerful upswing in equity prices since then is simply a continuation of the bull market we’ve seen over the past decade. Market leadership today is essentially the same as it was before the pandemic. The largest gains are concentrated in a small number of companies — mostly U.S.-based, internet-related businesses. Even outside the U.S., the winners primarily have been tech-focused companies benefiting from the same powerful tailwinds surrounding the growth of e-commerce, cloud computing and interactive media.