It might not feel like it, but a key US benchmark index has entered bull market territory after rallying from lows last year.
Buoyed by gains in big technology stocks, the broad-based S&P 500 index closed Thursday at 4,293.93 and crossed the threshold that separates a bear market from a bull market.
The index needed to top 4,292.44 to take it 20% higher than the levels it reached on 12 October 2022, bringing to end the bear market that began in January last year.
The most commonly accepted definition of a bull market is a 20% rise off a low, while a bear market is a 20% decline from a high, but even that is open to interpretation.
According to this, the last bear market began on 3 January 2022, when the S&P 500 closed at an all-time high, and ended on 12 October, when it bottomed out 25.4% lower.
A nine-month bear market with a drop of 25.4% is milder than the average bear market since 1950, which has lasted 13 months and seen a decline of 34.2%.
Bull markets tend to be long affairs. The average one since 1932 has lasted nearly five years and delivered a 177.8% rise, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.
But while the S&P may be in bull market territory, concerns over economic growth in the US remain high with many economists expecting a recession, mild or otherwise, at some stage in the next 12 months.