2022: A Year of Economic Pain

 2022 was an economic “Annus Horribilus”

• In 2022 citizens faced the toxic combination of fast-rising prices for the essential goods and services of life alongside a materially slowing growth trajectory
• Real Wages have declined for 20 straight months, leading to a spike in credit card debt
• Consumer Confidence plummeted to the lowest level since the post-World War II era in 2022
• That collapse in confidence naturally led to pain for Consumer-facing companies

Retailers endured particular pain

• Many Retailers languish because of a weakened Consumer customer base, but they also struggled to persevere in an era of dominance by just a select few online commerce firms, especially Amazon and Walmart
• Below is a chart of the Retailer sector using XRT. This ETF melted down a staggering 33%

The pain did not stay confined to just the Consumer side of the economy. Industrial enterprises also suffered

• Semiconductors form the "guts" of most value-added manufactured goods, and so the pain in this business reflected the broad, sustained breakdown in Manufacturing during 2022.

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