No Bear Market Since 2009?

Is the current bull market one of the longest on record or a brand-new newborn? Well, as Mark Hulbert noted in a column on MarketWatch.com, that depends on what benchmark index(es) you look at. If you believe the widely-accepted definition of a bear market as a 20% decline in one or more of the major market averages, there have been at least two and perhaps three bear markets since 2009! The first came in 2011 as three out of the four major indexes shown below all declined more than 20%. In 2015, the Russell 2000 fell more than 20% and the NASDAQ came close. And most recently, in 2018, both the small cap Russell 2000 and technology-heavy NASDAQ Composite fell more than 20%, and the S&P 500 came within a whisker. So, though most believe the current bull has run continuously since March of 2009 and is susceptible to dying of old age, it’s possible that the current bull market hasn’t even begun to walk yet!

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Womack Weekly Commentary: September 18, 2017

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