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BUSINESS Friday 8 March 2019
A25

After a decade of doubts, the stock market’s bull chugs on

By STAN CHOE — TOO MUCH OF A GOOD
Associated Press THING?
NEW YORK (AP) — The bull In early 2018, stocks were
market for U.S. stocks turns surging because both the
10 years old this weekend, economy and corporate
which puts it way past se- profits looked strong.
nior citizen status for a mar- But in February, a report
ket run. It’s got the scars to showed that workers’
prove it. wages rose more than
Since rising from the rub- economists expected. That
ble of the financial crisis in sounds like a good thing,
2009, this bull market has but investors grew nervous
faced several near-death that higher labor costs
experiences. Worries about would erode corporate
everything from debt prob- profits. It also increased the
lems in Europe to the glob- chance of the Federal Re-
al trade war have nearly serve getting more aggres-
derailed it at various points sive about raising interest
over the past decade. rates to forestall a surge in
But in each instance, the inflation.
market steadied itself be- Since the Great Recession,
fore notching a 20 percent low rates engineered by
loss, a reversal that would the Fed had helped to lift
have turned the bull mar- In this Aug. 24, 2015, file photo a television screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange corporate profits and the
ket into a bear. It sustained displays market news as world stock markets plunged after China’s main index sank 8.5 percent. stock market, and investors
itself even as other invest- Associated Press feared losing that huge pil-
ments, such as oil and But by the spring of 2010, The bull market nearly ex- panies increasingly de- lar of support.
stocks from other countries, markets had a new con- pired during that week: pended on China’s surg- — RATES, RECESSION AND
long ago fell into their own cern: Could Greece pay At its lowest point, the ing economy and middle TRADE
bear markets. its bills? Greece’s economy S&P 500 had lost near- class for growth. At Apple, As 2018 came to a close,
“It’s been one bull run, but was small, but the worry ly 18 percent from a prior for example, sales in the many fears converged to
there have been stages was that its debt problems peak set in April of that China region grew 92 per- bring the bull market the
to it,” said Michael Cug- could spill over into the year. By October 2011, it cent over the company’s closest it’s come to death
gino, portfolio manager global economy. The 2008 was down 19.4 percent. last five fiscal years, nearly over the last 10 years.
and president of Perma- financial meltdown had — CHINA TAKES CENTER double the 48 percent rate Investors were fearful the
nent Portfolio Family of clearly and painfully dem- STAGE of growth for all of Apple’s Fed’s policy of gradual in-
Funds. “Because of that, it’s onstrated how interwoven During this bull market, Chi- other markets combined. terest rates increases would
been harder to kill off, and markets had become. na overtook Japan to be- U.S. stocks buckled in the put the brakes on the U.S.
it’s had a better run than Mixed data on the U.S. come the world’s second- summer of 2015 and at economy. China’s growth
you’d expect.” economy also raised con- largest economy. More im- the turn of 2016 as China’s was slowing, and it was
This bull market has reward- cerns, and investors were portantly, China provided torrid growth slowed. The locked in a trade dispute
ed the faithful with a re- talking about a “double- much of the momentum country’s economy grew with the United States.
turn of more than 400 per- dip recession,” where the for a global economy that 6.9 percent in 2015, a still- Other economies around
cent, including dividends. economy would fall back was desperate for growth high rate but the slowest the world were weaken-
Even investors who bought into contraction soon after following the Great Reces- in 25 years. The price of oil ing as well. By Christmas
S&P 500 index funds the 2007-09 Great Reces- sion. was also plunging at the Eve, the S&P 500
at the 2007 peak and sub- sion. The unemployment With Europe struggling time, which more than had dropped 19.8 per-
sequently lost more than rate at the time was still and Japan seemingly in halved earnings for big en- cent from its record set in
half their money now have above 9 percent (versus 4 the doldrums, U.S. com- ergy companies. September.q
more than double what percent in January 2019).
they started with. That is, — A chaotic week in 2011
as long as they resisted the By the summer of 2011, in-
urge to sell each time skep- vestors’ worries about Eu-
tics said the bull was ready rope’s debt problems had
to collapse. spread beyond Greece
Here’s a look at some of to Spain, Italy and other
the biggest hurdles the countries around the Eu-
market overcame during ropean periphery. The U.S.
the last 10 years: economy, meanwhile, was
— Don’t “double dip” still considered fragile, and
Through the first year of the unemployment rate re-
the bull market, stocks shot mained around 9 percent.
nearly straight up, surg- In August, Standard &
ing about 75 percent in a Poor’s stripped the U.S.
little more than 12 months. government of its “AAA”
Investors were hopeful credit rating, and the wild-
for what’s known as a “V- est week in Wall Street’s
shaped” recovery, where history got underway. The
the upward move would S&P 500 had swings of
be a mirror image of the 4 percent on four straight
terrifying downturn that days, each time in a differ-
preceded it. ent direction.