The bull market in stocks isn't running out of steam, at least not yet — even with lots of geopolitical risks rearing their ugly heads and the Fed pressing forward with tapering its quantitative easing stimulus. Yesterday the S&P500 index soared to close at an all-time high of 2000.2, although it fell back a little today and is currently trading at 1999.6. The index is up 9.67 percent so far in 2014, and that's off the back of a monster 2013 when it rose 30 percent, the best annual gains since 1997.
What's driving the continued growth? Ordinary investors — after a grim few years since the financial crisis — finally began to come back into the market in 2013, and money keeps flowing into stocks, albeit a little more slowly than last year. According to Gallup, the percentage of investors optimistic about the market soared to 54 percent last year, compared to 24 percent who were pessimistic. Today, the optimists still greatly outweigh the pessimists by 46 percent to 26 percent:
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Montenegro offers Adriatic adventures without the crowdsThe Week Recommends There is room for everyone in this Balkan destination
-
'Although deepfake porn is a global problem, South Korea has been hit particularly hard'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
The deadliest plane crashes in US historyThe Explainer American Eagle Flight 5342 was the first deadly U.S. passenger crash since 2009
-
Chinese AI chatbot's rise slams US tech stocksSpeed Read The sudden popularity of a new AI chatbot from Chinese startup DeepSeek has sent U.S. tech stocks tumbling
-
US port strike averted with tentative labor dealSpeed Read The strike could have shut down major ports from Texas to Maine
-
Biden expected to block Japanese bid for US SteelSpeed Read The president is blocking the $14 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan's Nippon Steel, citing national security concerns
-
Judges block $25B Kroger-Albertsons mergerSpeed Read The proposed merger between the supermarket giants was stalled when judges overseeing two separate cases blocked the deal
-
Rupert Murdoch loses 'Succession' court battleSpeed Read Murdoch wanted to give full control of his empire to son Lachlan, ensuring Fox News' right-wing editorial slant
-
Bitcoin surges above $100k in post-election rallySpeed Read Investors are betting that the incoming Trump administration will embrace crypto
-
Enron mystery: 'sick joke' or serious revival?Speed Read 23 years after its bankruptcy filing, the Texas energy firm has announced its resurrection
-
US charges Indian tycoon with bribery, fraudSpeed Read Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has been indicted by US prosecutors for his role in a $265 million scheme to secure solar energy deals
