
Text size
As the market rebounds, speculative stocks are stirring. For proof, consider Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF, up about 40% since mid-June.
David Swanson/Reuters/Alamy
What bear market?
Stocks continued their summer rally this past week as better-than-expected inflation results helped lead to a 3.3% gain in the
S&P 500
index, its fourth consecutive weekly advance. The impetus was good news on inflation: The U.S. consumer price index was unchanged in July, compared with a consensus estimate of a 0.2% increase. While the CPI is still up 8.5% in the past year, investors are betting that inflation has peaked and could be running at closer to 4% by year end.
The S&P 500 now is down a relatively modest 10.2% for the year, having recouped more than 50% of its losses since its mid-June low. The index topped 4232 on Friday, a 50% retracement of the bear move, before closing at 4280.15.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
is off just 7%, helped by rallies in
Chevron
(ticker: CVX) and defensive stocks such as
Merck
(MRK),
Amgen
(AMGN), and
Coca-Cola
(KO).
The
Nasdaq
is still down 16.6% in 2022 but has rallied more than 20% from its June low, and speculative stocks are stirring. A bellwether of such is Cathie Wood’s
ARK Innovation
exchange-traded fund (ARKK), whose largest holdings include
Tesla
(TSLA) and
Roku
…
..