NEW YORK, Sept 4 — Investors are girding their portfolios for potential stock market volatility, even as equities hover near fresh highs after logging seven straight months of gains.
“It’s been a year of positive market returns, but it’s a bull market which has pretty defensive undertones,” said Saira Malik, head of global equities at money manager Nuveen Investments. At the same time, many have grown antsy in a market that has gone 292 calendar days without a decline of 5 per cent or more, nearly three times the average since World War II, according to data from CFRA’s Sam Stovall. Rising valuations, ebbing economic growth and signs of speculative excess have only added to their concerns.
Investors next week will be keeping an eye on quarterly results from video game retailer GameStop Corp, whose wild ride this year put a spotlight on retail investors’ mania for so-called meme stocks that some say is one sign of irrational exuberance in markets.