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John Authers

Could We Have Seen the S&P’s Historic Rebound Coming?

A year ago, when the index began its 70% climb, no one could possibly have concluded that the worst of the pandemic was over.

The Fed's bazooka was the key clue. — The Fed's bazooka was the key clue.
Photographer: Carsten Koall/Getty Images

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March 24, 2021, 4:07 AM UTC

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Congratulations: We have just finished the best 12 months in the history of the S&P 500. It was exactly a year ago that the world’s most followed index hit bottom after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and it has since gained more than 70%. Jim Reid, of Deutsche Bank AG, puts the return in perspective, back-calculating the index — which was launched in 1957 — to 1929, the year of the Great Crash: