U.S. stocks surged on Wednesday, putting the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average more than 20% above its September low after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s dovish comments and signs of cooling U.S. inflation raised hopes that the central bank will become less aggressive on interest-rates hikes.
The surge in the oldest of Wall Street’s three main stock indexes meets what some investors define as a bull market. Though analysts don’t always share the same definition for when to call the end of a bear market, which they say can only be recognized in hindsight.
While the Dow slumped into a bear market in September — the index’s first bear market since the pandemic-fueled selloff in early 2020 — it has been on a tear since October, boosted by the prospect of a slower pace of rate increases and the latest batch of corporate earnings. Just last month, the Dow rallied 14% to notch its biggest monthly gain since January 1976.
