Can the US stock bull market last?

The current bull market is the S&P’s second-longest on record. But how much longer can it last?

On 6 March 2009, the S&P 500 hit a low of 666.79. That turned out to be a good omen, however. It marked the start of a bull market that turned eight last Monday, with the S&P gaining more than 250%. Wall Street usually sets the tone for world markets, so the equity market recovery from the global financial crisis soon spread beyond the world's biggest economy. The current bull market is the S&P's second-longest on record. But how much longer can it last?

"Bull markets tend to end with a final euphoric phase as the last doubters are sucked in," as John Authers in the Financial Times points out. "This now begins to feel like a final phase but not like the end of one," he reckons. "This feels like 1997 or 1998, not like the top of the madness in 1999 or 2000."

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
Andrew Van Sickle
Editor, MoneyWeek

Andrew is the editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He grew up in Vienna and studied at the University of St Andrews, where he gained a first-class MA in geography & international relations.

After graduating he began to contribute to the foreign page of The Week and soon afterwards joined MoneyWeek at its inception in October 2000. He helped Merryn Somerset Webb establish it as Britain’s best-selling financial magazine, contributing to every section of the publication and specialising in macroeconomics and stockmarkets, before going part-time.

His freelance projects have included a 2009 relaunch of The Pharma Letter, where he covered corporate news and political developments in the German pharmaceuticals market for two years, and a multiyear stint as deputy editor of the Barclays account at Redwood, a marketing agency.

Andrew has been editing MoneyWeek since 2018, and continues to specialise in investment and news in German-speaking countries owing to his fluent command of the language.