Traders work on the morning trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange on January 11, 2024.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images
Wall Street’s rise to record highs occurred with little noticeable fluctuation.
The S&P 500 has gone 377 days without a 2.05% decline — the longest streak for the index since the global financial crisis, according to FactSet data compiled by CNBC. In that period, the index has also not experienced a gain of at least 2.15%.
The S&P 500 has gone 377 days without a sell-off of 2.05% or more, the longest stretch since the Global Financial Crisis.
CNBC
The market lull came as investors flocked to tech giants like Nvidia on hopes that artificial intelligence will boost profits. The S&P 500 is up more than 14% so far this year. Expectations of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve are also lifting market indexes into 2024 as new data shows inflation is moving closer to the central bank’s 2% target.
“Broadly speaking, the clouds of macroeconomic uncertainty have lifted over the past 12 months as lower inflation has provided much-needed clarity about the future direction of monetary policy,” said Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial. “The shift in outlook from rate hikes to rate cuts and from recession to economic recovery caused the VIX to fall to multi-year lows and ultimately shifted the stock market backdrop from high volatility to low volatility.”
The S&P 500 has now gone its longest stretch without a rise of at least 2.15% since the global financial crisis.
CNBC
Many investors view the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) as the de facto fear gauge for the Street. Last month, the index hit its lowest level since November 2020. On Friday, it was trading around 13, near its historic low.
“[T]”The low VIX reflects complacency in the options market, with the VIX at a three-year low,” said Joseph Kasich, senior vice president and portfolio expert at Calamos Investments. “This makes sense as institutions are actively hedging. As long as these insurance products exist, there’s no urgency to sell the underlying assets.”
It is unclear how long this period of low volatility will last.
In 2017, the S&P 500 recorded just eight one-day fluctuations of 1% or more, and the VIX fell to an all-time low below 9. But the following year, volatility returned to the market, and the VIX spiked above 50 before declining.
