We wish all our clients and readers a very Happy New Year. The year 2021 was a good one for stocks, fuelled by reopening optimism, strong corporate earnings growth, and medical breakthroughs. Much of the market’s momentum was recorded in the first half, before multiple challenges set in. These included inflation shocks beginning in late spring, a supply-chain crisis that impacted every industry by mid-summer, and rising interest rates as the year wound down. The year 2022 opens with many of these challenges still in place, and the stock market certainly faces a more-difficult path than was the case in 2021.