Stocks ended the first half of the year on double-digit percentage gains, fueled by an economic recovery that many investors believe is still gaining momentum.
The S&P 500 is up 14% this year while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 13%. This quarter will mark the fifth consecutive quarter of gains for both indices, the longest such streak since a nine-quarter year that lasted through 2017.
The mood should be exuberant. Data on everything from attitudes to consumer spending to small business confidence have come back and stayed above their pandemic lows.
For many asset managers, however, the past few months have felt anything but an easy win. After a period of 12 months of what appeared to be stocks do nothing but up, many say that the outlook is becoming more and more opaque.
These days, “nothing really gets killed, but nothing is really great,” said Andrew Slimmon, a managing director at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. “There is no definable trend [and] there is little consensus on the market. “
