Liz Ann Sonders is the chief investment strategist of Charles Schwab. Read on as we ask Sonders about the new bull market, interest rates and where she believes the best investing opportunities are in 2024.
The bull market, which recently passed its first birthday, seems surprisingly resilient but also wobbly. What's your take? If indexes suggest resilience, it's because those indexes, weighted by market capitalization, have been driven by a handful of stocks in 2023. Nearly all of the S&P 500's gains have come from seven stocks, with the rest of the market significantly underperforming the index. Even if you simply look at the S&P 500's one-year price gain of roughly 22% from the October 2022 market low, that's among the weakest ever for first-year gains. Not to mention that there's been almost no participation by small caps and a negative performance by financials, neither of which has ever happened – typically, both of those have been ripping a year after major market lows.
