US consumers and investors have become increasingly pessimistic this year because of historically high inflation, the FOMC’s aggressive interest rate increases, and the war in Ukraine, among other things.

After a strong on the fourth quarter of 2021, economic activity has begun to slow more than expected early in 2022 due to rapidly accelerating inflation emanating from goods shortages due to supply chain bottlenecks, as well as a continued jump in inflation driven in part by surging commodity prices brought on by the Russia-Ukraine war.

The global economy continues to improve, with most regions now better off than six months ago. The Omicron variant of the virus introduces some uncertainty into the near-term outlook, but most analysts believe that it will not derail the overall momentum of the recovery