S&P 500's Run at Record Lacks Animal Spirits
Valuations suggest investors are more fearful than complacent.
Investors are fearful despite the S&P 500 on the cusp of a new record high.
Photographer: Hulton Archive
The S&P 500 Index is almost back to its all-time high reached in January despite a litany of adverse shocks on the domestic and international fronts. It's not that these shocks don't matter. It's just that they pale in significance against the market’s cheap valuation.
Many investors cite complacency for the ability of the market to rebound from the late January and early February correction despite escalating global trade tensions, political dysfunction in assorted countries, the inability of the U.K. to work out a Brexit deal with the European Union, a new populist government in Italy, slower economic growth in China and the ongoing probe by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russia’s efforts to infiltrate and undermine the 2016 presidential election.