The top and bottom charts show the earnings expectations for 2021 and 2022 by market and sector, respectively. The COVID-19 pandemic has hit cyclical sectors hard in 2020, but they rebound in 2021 as the global economy gradually normalized.

Meanwhile, the tech, health care and defensive sectors weathered the pandemic well with positive earnings in 2020 and kept growing in 2021. This was a tailwind for South Korea and Taiwan, which are the leading markets in Asia for these sectors.