A $1 Trillion Buying Spree Lets S&P 500 Brush Off Bear Warnings
- Day trader and corporate purchases show no sign of letting up
- Benchmark hasn’t experienced a 5% pullback since last November
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Market watchers have heard the warnings over and over. Stocks are expensive. Growth is set to slow. Higher taxes and hawkish monetary policy loom as threats. Yet there’s a mighty force pushing back against all the bearish voices: buyers who keep on buying.
Demand is up across the board, from die-hard day traders piling into meme stocks, to exchange-traded funds and even once-cautious hedge funds now raising leverage to boost exposure. With dip buyers seemingly ready to jump in at every pullback, the S&P 500 Index has gone seven months without a 5% drawdown -- the longest stretch of buoyancy since February 2018.