LONDON/SINGAPORE—World stocks were steady on the last trading day of the year as markets digested U.S. data and the dismantling of China’s zero-COVID policy, but the global index was heading for a 20 percent drop over a year marred by high inflation and war in Europe.
The dollar, a beneficiary of rising U.S. interest rates, was on track for its best annual performance in seven years.
The Federal Reserve and other central banks have been fighting inflation in the face of supply chain shortages and an energy crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic and oil producer Russia’s invasion of Ukraine….