2022 saw major jolts. The highest U.S. inflation in four decades. Global political anxiety as Russia invaded Ukraine. Mounting recession worries amid economic fallout from the pandemic. And a sharp downturn in stock and bond markets.
With the S&P 500 down roughly 20% for the year, most investors saw their portfolios shrink amid the turmoil. And savers should expect more of the same in 2023, according to market watchers.
Elizabeth Burton, a managing director and client investment strategist at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, told a webinar on Nov. 14 that "the portfolio construction playbook that worked so well for the last few decades will be less effective going forward." The new economic and political pressures, she added, "are quickly calling traditional investment approaches into question."
Despite the turmoil, some fund managers found opportunity in the chaos.
Scroll through the 10 top-performing U.S. equity exchange-traded funds of 2022. All data is from Morningstar Direct.
