According to the Associated Press, the S&P 500 is now in what Wall Street refers to as a bull market, meaning the index has risen 20% or more from its most recent low.
This latest bull market is considered to have begun on Oct. 13, 2022, a day after the S&P 500 closed at its most recent low of 3,577.03. The market has rallied as the economy has defied predictions by not yet falling into a recession.
Aiming to drive down inflation, the Fed has yanked interest rates to their highest level since 2007, up from virtually zero early last year. Inflation, meanwhile, has eased off since hitting a peak last summer. That has Wall Street hoping for the Fed to soon stop hiking interest rates.
Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq are already in bull markets, having entered them in November and May, respectively.
That said, the expectation among traders is for the Fed to resume hiking in July. The hope is that will ultimately be the last rate hike, but persistent inflation could upend that.
That keeps up the pressure on the overall economy and particularly on the banking and manufacturing industries, which have already shown some cracks.
Most of the gains for the S&P 500 this year have come from just a small group of stocks, which critics say is unsustainable.
By entering a bull market, the S&P 500 effectively put an end to the bear market that began on Jan. 3, 2022. Officially, the bear market is considered to have ended on Oct. 12, 2022.Â
