The bull market that just won't quit
Stocks continue to climb thanks to strong earnings and solid economic data. Wall Street is betting that the Federal Reserve may stick the elusive soft landing after all.
Stocks are climbing again Thursday. The Dow is trying to eke out a fourteenth straight gain. The S&P 500 is at a 52-week high. And the Nasdaq is surging thanks to strong earnings from Threads owner Meta Platforms. (Ha!)
The Facebook/Insta/WhatsApp parent is one of just several big techs that is having an amazing 2023. META is up 165% this year! Apple, Amazon and Google owner Alphabet have all gained more than 50% YTD. Nvidia has soared more than 200%. And Elon Musk’s Tesla has more than doubled. (X marks the spot? Heh.)
The bull market is showing no signs of slowing down. And if companies keep posting decent earnings, then stocks may still have room to run. (Valuations be damned.) It’s not just tech companies posting solid results either. McDonald’s rallied Thursday thanks to strong earnings and sales. (Thanks, Grimace Shake!) The macroeconomic story remains promising too for the time being.
Yes, the Federal Reserve just raised rates again. But Wall Street is betting that Wednesday’s hike could be the last of this cycle and hopes are growing for a proverbial (but often mythical) soft landing. Weekly jobless claims continue to slide and GDP for the second quarter rose at a better-than-expected 2.4% annualized clip. Recession? Not yet it appears. But it still remains to be seen just when all those Fed rate hikes will finally slow the economy down. Getting inflation under control without hurting demand is not easy.