Are stocks back in a bull market or is this just a bear market rally?

The S&P 500 index gained 17% between its June lows and 16 August, while the Nasdaq Composite rose more than 20%. So are stocks back in a bull market or is this just a brief rally before they resume their slide?

New York stock exchange
The long-term investors are on the sidelines
(Image credit: © Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

“The extreme pessimism of the first half of 2022 seems a distant memory” on Wall Street, says Nicholas Jasinski in Barron’s. “War in Europe, runaway inflation” and “a behind-the-curve Federal Reserve” saw US stocks suffer their worst first half in more than 50 years.

Yet the S&P 500 index gained 17% between its June lows and 16 August, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose more than 20%, a milestone widely considered to herald a new bull market. The FTSE 100 rose 7% over the same period.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.