It’s nearly the end of another dramatic year in finance.
Russia invaded Ukraine. Markets tumbled. Interest rates reached record highs. Prices soared. The Republican “red wave” at the midterm elections in November never happened. House prices continued their march north, even if the market has shown signs of cooling. It’s been a hell of a year.
So how much do you really know about what went down during an eventful year? Don’t cheat yourself by looking up the answers online. Will you get an A+ or an F? Or perhaps somewhere in between?
Take MarketWatch’s 2022 Financial Quiz (below) to find out:
1. Excluding dividends, what was the best- and worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 SPX, -0.25% this year?
2. How many times did the Federal Reserve raise interest rates this year?
3. Inflation surged in 2022 to its highest annualized rate in how many decades?
4. President Joe Biden announced student-debt forgiveness, but how much will people get if the program, hung in the courts presently, goes ahead in 2023?
5. What cryptocurrency exchange went under during the year, and how many billions — yes, billions — disappeared from customers’ wallets?
6. Tesla TSLA, +1.12% founder Elon Musk took Twitter private in 2022. How much was the deal worth, and how many jobs did Musk subsequently cut?
7. What is the Fed’s traditional inflation target?
8. The 30-year mortgage rate doubled over the last year. Where does it stand now?
9. Congress passed five major pieces of legislation in 2022. Name one of them.
10. What was the name of the person who became prime minister for Britain in September?
Bonus question: How did the U.K. markets react?
Click here for the answers at the end of Thursday’s “Need to Know” column.