Most investors were likely happy to see 2022 come to an end when the bell rang out the final trading session of the year on Friday. Stocks logged their worst annual performance since 2008, while bond returns were the worst in decades or, in some cases, in history.
Now, the calendar affords exhausted traders a three-day weekend to recuperate and get ready for 2023. New Year’s Day falls on Sunday, which means U.S. financial markets will be closed Monday. Thanks to an obscure exchange rule, investors and traders were denied a day off for New Year’s Day in 2022, which fell on a Saturday.
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Bond traders got a jump on the New Year’s Eve festivities. SIFMA, the bond industry trade group, recommended that fixed-income markets close an hour early on Friday, Dec. 30, at 2 p.m. Eastern.
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Investors were coming off a three-day weekend after the Christmas Day holiday, which also fell on Sunday. Financial markets were closed Monday in observance.
The S&P 500
SPX,
rang in 2022 with a record close on Jan. 3 and then began a slide that sent the large-cap benchmark into a bear market — a slide of 20% or more from a recent peak — where it remains.
The S&P 500 saw a 2022 loss of 19.4%, dragged down in part by sharp losses for former technology-related high fliers that have suffered the worst as the Federal Reserve has aggressively jacked up its policy interest rate in an effort to rein in inflation. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
dropped 33% in 2022.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
had held up better, down 8.8% for the year.