Yet investors remain unrelentingly bullish, bidding the US stock market further into uncharted territory. The S&P 500 has scored 43 record highs so far in 2024. The latest milestone on Monday left the benchmark index up 20.8% on the year. That’s the strongest start to a year since 1997, according to FactSet, when the US economy was surging during the dotcom boom under President Bill Clinton. This year’s boom has been fueled by growing hopes of a soft landing for the US economy.
Still, the mood on Wall Street has improved dramatically from just two months ago. In early August, a bad jobs report sparked recession fears and markets plunged as two popular trades suddenly blew up. But markets rapidly recovered from that growth scare, quickly making new highs. The CNN Fear & Greed Index, which measures the emotions driving markets, edged into “extreme greed” territory on Monday. That is a major improvement from “extreme fear” in August.