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The first half of the year was very challenging for investors with stocks, bonds, and almost all other asset classes delivering their worst returns in decades. Even many traditional safe-haven assets did not provide any refuge to investors.

The S&P 500 (SPY - Free Report) fell 21%, its worst first-half performance in fifty years, the Dow (DIA - Free Report) was down more than 15% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq (QQQ - Free Report) plunged almost 30%.

As inflation has been soaring all over the world, mainly due to disruptions caused by the war and the pandemic, the sell-off was global.

Commodities, particularly oil and natural gas, were among the best performers, as they benefitted from disruptions caused by the war. Energy was the best performing sector with a gain of 29%. In fact, it was the only S&P sector in the green.

The United States Gasoline Fund (UGA - Free Report) and the Elements Rogers International Commodity Index-Energy ETN (RJN - Free Report) surged more than 65% during the first half.

Consumer discretionary was the worst performing sector with a loss of 32%. Russian ETFs topped the list of worst performers as their stocks were kicked out of emerging market benchmarks and became almost worthless.

Cryptocurrencies have suffered a brutal sell-off with bitcoin down more than 60% year-to-date. Blockchain and miner stocks that are levered plays on cryptocurrencies were also down a lot.

The Global X Blockchain ETF (BKCH - Free Report) and the VanEck Digital Transformation ETF (DAPP - Free Report) were among the ETFs that lost more than 70%.

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