The darker view on 2022

Some on Wall Street have made the case that 2022 won’t be that bad for markets. But there are bears in the woods, and they aren’t as sanguine. Corporate America’s well-oiled profit machine has been the backbone of virtually every bullish equity argument this year. It’s helped stocks power past the Federal Reserve’s hawkish pivot and each new variant of the coronavirus. But high price pressures may upend those sunny predictions. This in a nutshell is the main bear case on U.S. stocks, which notes that after a steady climb since last year, 12-month estimates for the S&P 500’s operating margins stalled out in October. The plateau coincided with the start of an earnings season that saw companies sounding the alarm on rising input costs and the labor crunch. —David E. Rovella

Bloomberg is tracking the coronavirus pandemic and the progress of global vaccination efforts.

One of Wall Street’s biggest bulls meanwhile is betting the S&P 500 will continue to gain before a correction in the second half of next year—when the Fed starts raising interest rates. Here’s your markets wrap.

Bitcoin may be the most popular cryptocurrency, but crypto investors would be wise to keep on eye on Ether, which dramatically outperformed its more volatile cousin in 2021—a trend that could continue in 2022.

China’s methodical effort to dismantle what remains of civil liberties and an independent news media in Hong Kong continued Wednesday as security forces targeted pro-democracy outlet Stand News. They raided its newsroom and arrested seven people—including acting Editor-in-Chief Patrick Lam—citing a colonial-era U.K. sedition law. The news outlet is shutting down permanently.

China’s top quant hedge fund apologized to investors after a record slump in performance, highlighting challenges facing the industry following a period of breakneck growth.

President Joe Biden plans to talk by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday as the U.S. and its allies raise alarm about Russia’s troop buildup on the Ukraine border.

The omicron variant of the coronavirus is swamping the globe with an unprecedented number of infections, combining with delta variant cases to threaten healthcare systems everywhere. Covid hospitalizations are spiking from New South Wales to New York state. While preliminary indications seem to show a lower rate of hospitalizations tied to omicron, there’s a new problem: As people scramble for rapid tests, the U.S. government is warning they may not detect some infections. Here’s the latest on the pandemic.

India Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised his nation’s initial response to the coronavirus early in the pandemic. But 2021 was to be decidedly different. Despite ominous signs at the start of the year pointing to a new and more severe version of the virus, months of governmental inertia and a startling lack of resources set the stage for the catastrophic delta-fueled wave that killed an untold number of Indians (some estimates of the nation’s total Covid fatalities are in the millions). While South Africa acted swiftly last month to decode the heavily mutated omicron and publicize its existence, India’s experience may better reflect the reality faced by most developing countries—where a lack of vaccination compared with rich nations sets the stage for new and potentially more lethal mutations.

Qatar wants to attract 1.2 million people to the World Cup—but it will struggle to accommodate many of them. With ticket sales beginning in January, supporters are in for a shock when they look for somewhere to stay: Qatar already looks sold out.

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