Image: Shutterstock

Major indexes posted their worst quarterly performance in two years thanks to multiple headwinds, including rising inflation, war, supply chain disruptions, and tighter monetary policy. Stocks staged an impressive rebound in the last two weeks, but the Dow, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq were still down 4.6% 4.9%, and 9% respectively for the quarter.

The Energy sector surged 38% and posted its best quarter in history. Energy and Utilities were the only sectors in the green for the quarter, while Financials was flat.

For commodities, it was the best quarter in more than 30 years. They were already benefitting from inflation and the Russia-Ukraine war supercharged the rally. It was the worst quarter for bonds in over forty years, as interest rates rose.

Russia is a major producer of nickel, which is a key element in EV batteries and stainless steel. The demand for the metal had seen surging and prices were rising even before the conflict, as automakers all over the world procured the metal for lithium-ion batteries that power EVs.

Russia is the world’s second-largest producer of natural gas and third-largest oil producer. Last week, oil prices fell slightly after President Biden announced the release of about a million barrels of oil per day from strategic reserves for six months but have risen again this week on reports of new sanctions on Russian oil.

The iPath Series B Bloomberg Nickel Subindex Total Return ETN (JJN - Free Report), the iPath Series B Bloomberg Natural Gas Subindex Total Return ETN (GAZ - Free Report), and the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF (XES - Free Report) were the top-performing ETFs of Q1.

Russia ETFs were the worst performers as major index providers removed these stocks from their benchmarks, and wrote their values down to zero, as they had become un-investable.

Speculative tech stocks were also hit hard and the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK - Free Report) was the second-worst performer, down about 30% for the quarter. While its top holding--Tesla (TSLA - Free Report) —was almost flat,  other holdings like Roku (ROKU - Free Report), Zoom Video Communications (ZM), and Shopify (SHOP - Free Report), were down between 35% and 45%.