It's been a vicious 6 months for stocks. Here's what the grim markets are signaling

This has been the worst start to a year for stocks in more than half a century.

A record-setting run fueled by cheap money has ended, and Wall Street is having a hard time adjusting to a new reality. With the Federal Reserve aggressively hiking interest rates to fight high inflation, the economic landscape has changed dramatically.

At the mid-year point of 2022, the tech-heavy Nasdaq has fallen by almost 30% and the broad-based S&P 500 is down by around 20% in the first six months of the year. Both indexes are in bear market territory, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is in a correction. Year to date, it is down about 15%.