The"Fearless Girl" statue is seen outside the New York Stock Exchange in the Manhattan borough of New York, on May 26, 2020. The S&P 500's record closing high on Tuesday confirmed that the coronavirus-fueled bear market of 2020 was by far the shortest ever.Measured from the benchmark's previous record high on Feb.
Wall Street's dramatic bounce over the next five months saw the S&P gain some about 55per cent in the face of widespread economic devastation and a resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic in parts of the United States.In June, the Nasdaq became the first of the three major U.S. stock indexes to reclaim all-time highs, powered by gains in the shares of big technology-related companies that prospered during COVID-19 lockdowns, including Amazon.com Inc and Netflix Inc .
Commonly defined as a drop of 20per cent or more from a peak, the S&P 500 has seen about a dozen bear markets, or near-bear markets since the late 1960s, in most cases accompanied by a recession. While 2020's bear market was the S&P 500's shortest-lived, it still packed a punch. The index fell 34per cent from its February high to its March low, just slightly below its average bear market loss of 37per cent.However, declines in the index's most recent bear market were not as deep as its two previous downturns.