Article originally published by Forbes.

Australian and US markets suffered as a strong US dollar, red-hot inflation and rising interest rates hit.

2022 saw the worst annual performance on the S&P/ASX 200 since 2018, according to CommSec, with a -5.5% drop in the value of the index for the 12 months to the final trading day of the year on 30 December, compared with a gain of 13% in 2021. The All Ordinaries was down -7.2% for the year, compared with a gain of 17.7% in 2021.

Only three sectors rose in 2022, Energy (+39.7%), Utilities (+24.2%), and Materials (4.8%), while Technology saw the biggest decline, down -34.3%. The best performer on the ASX for 2022 calendar year was Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC), up 260.9%, while the biggest drop came from Novonix (ASX:NVX), down 84% for the year.

In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -9% for the year, while the S&P 500 fell -20% and the tech-heavy NASDAQ was down -34%. It’s the first year since 2018 that the three indices dropped, and the worst year for markets since the 2008 financial crisis.