The stock market swell is more of a Magnificent Seven surge continues to hover around half-century lows, though the persistently tight labor market further fueling inflation means that these job vacancies aren’t exactly something to brag about. But the most unambiguously strong feature of the economy is the stock market, and it is booming.
President and CEO of Nvidia Corporation Jensen Huang delivers a speech during the Computex 2024 exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan, Sunday, June 2, 2024. But, of course, not all markets are created equal. The stock market swell isn’t much greater than that when you account for inflation. And more than a “stock market” boom, it’s a Magnificent Seven surge, which, in turn, is fueled by AI and the Nvidia explosion.
In the last year alone, the Magnificent Seven — Nvidia, as well as Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and Tesla — grew by 76%, contributing the majority of the 26% of the S&P 500 overall. From October 2022 until the start of this year, the Magnificent Seven was up more than 60% compared to the rest of the 493 companies in the index, whose stock prices didn’t increase a full 30%.