The Independent Investor
Strategies for Managing Your Assets
Dear Clients and Friends:

If you are like me, Omicron has turned the New Year from a shiny penny to something like moldy pocket lint. Hopefully, we can all handle whatever comes next. For the markets, analysts are predicting a solid year to come. Not like the boom of the last year, but a typical mid-cycle market, with room for companies to grow. One caveat is that markets tend to be bumpy in mid-term election years, just to get in on the general excitement.

Check out the LPL Outlook below. As with our hopes for the End of Covid, we'll view all predictions with very cautious optimism. Wishing you health and fortitude!

Rachel
A combination of record stimulus, consumer demand, a friendly Fed, vaccinations, and reopening of businesses all contributed to a big year in 2021. After the shortest recession on record, only two months in March and April 2020, the economy came roaring back to produce about 5% GDP growth in 2021, more than making up for the 3.4% drop in GDP in 2020.

There have been problems along the way as well. Supply chain backlogs, materials and labor shortages, and higher prices all held the economy back to varying degrees. What does 2022 have in store?

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A "zero waste" food supply chain? High-tech composting? Eating your own yogurt cup?! It could all be heading our way in 2022, according to some experts.

Women face greater financial hardship in retirement than men. It's a troubling picture for many American families and a problem that needs multiple solutions.

2021 was a banner year for the market. This infographic visualizes the sectors that saw the best and worst growth for the year.

What We're Reading
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES

This research material has been prepared by LPL Financial LLC. To the extent you are receiving investment advice from a separately registered independent investment advisor, please note that LPL Financial LLC is not an affiliate of and makes no representation with respect to such entity. Securities and Advisory services offered through LPL Financial LLC, a Registered Investment Advisor Member FINRA/SIPC.

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