The five biggest market surprises of 2023
Shareholders have had a remarkably good year. Forecasters have had a terrible one
FINANCIAL markets will always produce surprises. After all, by the time a consensus has formed, people will have bought or sold accordingly. The move has already happened; the future has something else in store.
Even accounting for this, investors have had an unusually difficult time in 2023. The year started with broad agreement that 2022’s soaring interest rates would cause recessions in much of the world. Not only was this baked into asset prices – it also turned out to be wrong.
Yet it was not just economic assumptions that were overturned. Here are the other big market surprises of 2023.
TRENDING NOW
On the board but frozen out: The Taib family feud tearing Sarawak construction giant apart
Is it time to scrap COE categories for cars?
Thai and Vietnamese farmers may stop planting rice because of the Iran war. Here’s why
As more Asean states turn to Russia for fuel, will Moscow boost its influence in the region?