Chart: The Epic Collapse of Deutsche Bank

Visualizing S&P 500 Performance in 2022, by Sector

Tracking indexes over the course of a year reveals a lot about market trends and sentiment. The S&P 500’s performance over the course of 2022 is a great example.

Throughout the year, inflation rates have remained high and interest rates have likewise been climbing around the world. Accompanied by the looming threat of a recession, some sectors have been hit harder than others.

The above visualization from Jan Varsava shows U.S. dividend-adjusted stock performance for each company in the S&P 500 index in 2022, from the start of the year through the end of September.

S&P 500 Performance (Jan 1 to Sep 30, 2022)

In 2022, the S&P 500 index dropped -23.9% through the end of September. Let’s take a look at some of the major trends from this year’s stock market.

Winners

The energy sector has been the noticeable standout and performed significantly well since the beginning of the year, as sanctions surrounding Russia impacted oil and gas supplies resulting in sharp price increases.

Top performing energy stocks as of September 30th, 2022 included Occidental Petroleum (OXY) up 112% year to date (YTD), and Marathon Petroleum (MPC) which rose 52% YTD.

Traditional defensive sectors such as healthcare, consumer staples, and utilities, although down for the year, also performed better than the overall index.

Losers

Growth stocks in both technology and communication services underperformed since the beginning of this year, as the value of future earnings were impacted by rising interest rates increasing the cost of capital.

Real estate, consumer cyclical (or consumer discretionary), and materials also underperformed compared to the overall index.

The trends are reflective of the fact that value stocks like energy and healthcare historically outperform growth stocks during periods of rising rates, though there are many varying factors that can alter performance.

Major Shifts in Q4

But as October has shown, the market is far from settled.

Lower-than-expected earnings and overspending caused Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) to drop 24% over five days and Amazon to drop 13%.

And the final impact of rising interest rates have yet to be fully felt, though indexes generally fare well in the year following. Since 1927, the average S&P 500 return sits at around 11.5% in the 12 months following peak inflation.

Visualizing America’s Most Popular Fast Food Chains

Fast food is big business in America. From national chains to regional specialties, the industry was worth $331.4 billion as of June 2022.

Which fast food brands are currently dominating this space? This graphic by Truman Du uses data from Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) Magazine to show the most popular fast food chains across America.

The Most Prevalent Fast Food Chains, by Store Count

Each year, QSR Magazine puts together a report that ranks America’s top 50 fast food chains. It uses a number of metrics to determine this, including total sales (which we’ve covered in a previous article), average-unit volume (AUVs), and growth figures.

For this graphic, Du zoomed in on a specific metric from the report—the number of stores that each fast food chain has across the country. Here are the top 50 chains, and the number of restaurants they each have across America:

Subway takes first place with over 20,000 restaurants across the country—that’s more stores than all the other sandwich chains on the list put together.

Subway’s popularity is reflected in its sales figures, as well—in 2021, Subway generated about $9.4 billion in sales, about double its closest rival Arby’s.

Second on the list is Starbucks, with more than 15,000 stores across America. Despite a rough 2020, the coffee chain managed to turn things around in 2021, making more than $24 billion in sales that year.

The iconic burger joint McDonald’s comes in third, with more than 13,000 restaurants across the country. While the restaurant has fewer stores than Starbucks and Subway, it generated $46 billion in 2021 sales, which is more than Subway and Starbucks combined.

The “Stay in Your Lane” Curse

As the report shows, quick service restaurants are a popular dining option across America, and the successful ones have the potential to generate billions of dollars each year.

However, QSRs are not without their struggles. One difficulty facing fast food chains is the fact they’re often siloed into specific verticals—once a QSR establishes its niche, it can be difficult for that chain to branch out and successfully launch different menu items.

Take McDonald’s McPizza for example, which was launched in the mid 1980s and tested for a decade or so before being widely discontinued by 2000. Various factors contributed to its demise, but one major issue was the pizza’s relatively long cook-time of sixteen minutes.

Innovation in the Fast Food Industry

While fast food restaurants may have difficulty diversifying their menus, there’s still tons of innovation happening in the industry, especially when it comes to optimizing service and cutting wait times for customers.

For example, Starbucks’ mobile order and pay service, which allows customers to order from their phone, has grown 400% over the last five years. And in 2021, the McDonald’s app was downloaded 24 million times.

It’ll be interesting to see what changes in the next decade, as fast food companies continue to invest in their digital offers and tech support.