“This is the decade in which wealth inequality has increased the most in U.S. history,” said Moritz Schularick, a professor of economics at the Bonn Graduate School of Economics in Germany who has written about the distribution of wealth in the United States. “The driver has been the very unequal gains in the very sharp performance of the stock market relative to the sharp drop of the housing market.”
Bull Market Hits a Milestone: 3,453 Days. Most Americans Aren’t at the Party.By Matthew Phillip
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For most of this bull market, the individual investor has largely sat out
". . . Even as the S. & P. 500 charges higher, retail investors continue to exit the equity markets. Between mid-March and late July, investors pulled some $40 billion out of American mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, while pumping some $80 billion into the safety of bond funds, according to Bespoke Investment Group, a stock market research firm . . ."
Bull Market Hits a Milestone: 3,453 Days. Most Americans Aren’t at the Party.By Matthew Phillip
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Stocks crossed a major threshold on Wednesday, when the 10-year-old bull market arguably became the longest on record.
It ranks among the great booms in American market history. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index has soared more than 320 percent since emerging from the rubble of the financial crisis in March 2009, creating more than $18 trillion in wealth.
The Longest Bull Markets
At 3,453 days, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index has reached a milestone: It is the longest bull market on record if you count a 19.9 percent decline in 1990 as the start of its rival. Bear markets are often marked by declines of 20 percent or more.
3,000
S.& P. 500-stock index
1,000
3,453
days
Scale is logarithmic to show
comparable percentage changes
1,826
days
+323%*
+102%
3,452
days
100
+417%
1,839
days
2,248
days
+229%
4,494
days
+126%
+582%
10
2,954
days
Each shaded area
is a bull market
+263%
1
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
2018
But the gains haven’t been spread among the masses. Stock market wealth is heavily concentrated among the richest families.
For most of this bull market, the individual investor has largely sat out
". . . Even as the S. & P. 500 charges higher, retail investors continue to exit the equity markets. Between mid-March and late July, investors pulled some $40 billion out of American mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, while pumping some $80 billion into the safety of bond funds, according to Bespoke Investment Group, a stock market research firm . . ."
The moment to worry is when there is broad agreement that the market can only go higher. That would suggest there is little fresh money available to drive stocks to new heights.
