The US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and even... the Swiss National Bank! All of them have finally turned hawkish, implementing aggressive monetary tightening. They've been forced to act to curb the torrid inflation - which they themselves have fueled - that has been melting the purchasing power of consumers and the portfolios of investors for several months.

This tightening, which translates into an across-the-board increase in central bank interest rates, is the end of the road for a market accustomed to easy money and double-digit annual index returns. The current perception? That the next world will surely not see so many mediocre stocks making exponential gains year after year. These rate hikes could also put a damper on the Nasdaq, a trendy index of the past 15 years thanks to its tech stocks.

The crypto world is also taking a big hit as the MOAC (mother of all cryptos), Bitcoin, looks set to dig even lower having returned to the $20k level, last reached in December 2020. It must be said that the meteoric rise in the price of cryptocurrencies was undoubtedly not unrelated to the abundant flow of cash that emanated from central banks in recent years.

Hopefully, the bear will hibernate this winter...or even before.