Benchmark
Slow Slog in Stocks Is Now a Steamroller Crushing Every Naysayer
- Rally has ‘exceeded my expectations,’ says Schwab’s Frederick
- The S&P 500 has gone almost 200 days without a 5% pullback
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The gains are smaller, befitting a less hysterical year. When the S&P 500 Index has risen in 2021, the daily increase has been half what it was in 2020. But in terms of persistent, day-after-day gains, these seven months in the U.S. stock market have few historical precedents.
Virtually doubling from a bear market bottom in 17 months, fueled by Federal Reserve stimulus, the seemingly never-ending succession of little gains has somehow become the fastest rally since 1932. Up 31% from its previous peak, the benchmark gauge for American equities is already beating the median-increment gain seen in the last 13 bull markets.