investors can be forgiven for feeling a little motion sickness after a rollercoaster january as the dust settled analysts at deutsche bank offered up the chart below breaking down the performance in us dollar terms of major global financial assets last month blame it on the federal reserve and other major central banks as policy makers signaled they would more aggressively rein in the massive monetary stimulus put in place in response to the pandemic as they now attempt to get a handle on persistent inflation pressures a spike in treasury yields with the 10year rate hitting a twoyear high near 19 before pulling back helped make the nasdaq composite comp  down 9 the month’s secondbiggest loser rising rates were a particular blow for tech and growth stocks higher yields make the often far in the future cash flows that their valuations are based on less valuable in present terms the nasdaq fell into correction in january as its slide took it down more than 10 from its record close in november for the month the us benchmark sp 500 spx saw a negative return of 52 but it was a rough month for global equities overall with the worst performance since march 2020 when the first wave of covid19 sent stocks plunging noted deutsche bank strategists henry allen and jim reid in the note credit also struggled on both sides of the atlantic they observed as did traditional safehaven assets like sovereign bonds and precious metals the nasdaq’s weakness meanwhile was surpassed only by russia’s micex index rumoex dogged by worries over moscow’s intentions around ukraine january’s other main market theme the strategists observed in turn those tensions were good news for oil bulls though surging crude prices may have unnerved investors in other assets brent crude brn00  up 173 and the us benchmark west texas intermediate crude cl1 cl00  up 172 both saw their strongest gains in 11 months read how a russian invasion of ukraine could trigger market shock waves after all russia is one of the world’s biggest oil exporters allen and reid noted while adding that the lessvirulent nature of the omicron variant of the coronavirus was also a positive as it didn’t lead to major lockdowns and raised hopes that further restrictions on mobility would be avoided see tensions between russia and ukraine aren’t fully priced into commodities oil’s gains came despite a surge by the us dollar which was the top performer among g10 currencies as the ice us dollar index dxy  which measures it against a basket of six major rivals jumped to an 18month high as traders priced in a more aggressive fed the prospect of higher rates and tanking tech stocks did no favor for cryptocurrencies the chart underlines with bitcoin btcusd falling 17 for its third straight monthly fall while xrp xrpusd  down 265 ethereum ethusd  down 273 and litecoin ltcusd  down 253 also tumbled read next what to expect from markets in the next six weeks before the federal reserve revamps its easymoney stance