Is it a bull market again? If so, it’s an odd one. Seven stocks – Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Alphabet and Tesla – are almost totally responsible for the tentative optimism on Wall Street. Some analysts say a “duck market” is a better description – on the surface everything looks fine but there’s a lot of paddling going on below. Tech companies at the very top have been boosted by enthusiasm for AI and a resurgent dollar. The rest of the market is being left in the dust to deal with interest rate hikes, a spending slowdown and fears of recession. It’s possible they too could benefit from the AI productivity boom, but it will take a while to show. The gap between the Russell Top 50 Mega Cap index and the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies is the widest it has been since 2002.
