The New Bull Market Has Broadened

Published Friday, July 21, 2023 at: 8:04 PM EDT

The new bull market that began June 10 has broadened noticeably, which is a positive sign. More companies are participating in the bull market’s gains.

The largest companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index have dominated stock market performance mid-March. The market-cap weighted S&P 500 index diverged from the equal-weighted S&P 500 index beginning from mid-March through the end of May. That was when technology giants Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, NVIDIA, Tesla, Alphabet (Google), and Meta (Facebook) began to rally and pulled away from the other 492 companies in the S&P 500 index trailed. However, since June 1, the other companies in the S&P 500 index have begun to close the performance gap, as shown in the chart comparing the market-capitalization weighted S&P 500 to the equal-weighted version of the index.

After climbing to a record high on Jan. 3, 2022, the S&P 500 began a long plunge. It dropped into bear market territory in June 2022, when it closed more than 20% lower than its peak. The bear market bottomed in mid-October 2022, when the current upturn in stock prices began.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index closed Friday at 4536.34, up +0.03% from Thursday, and up +0.69% from a week ago. The index is up +102.75% from the March 23, 2020, bear market low and only -5.43% shy of its January 3, 2022, all-time high.

The Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500) is an unmanaged group of securities considered to be representative of the stock market in general. It is a market-value weighted index with each stock's weight proportionate to its market value. Index returns do not include fees or expenses. Investing involves risk, including the loss of principal, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. The investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance quoted.

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This article was written by a professional financial journalist for Advisor Products and is not intended as legal or investment advice.