The S&P 500 index finished at an all-time high on Friday, snapping a 145-day run without a record close.
Through Thursday, the S&P 500 SPX, +0.62% hadn’t logged a record close since Jan. 26, just ahead of its tumble, along with the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.52% into a correction on Feb. 8. A correction is usually defined as a market retreat of 10% from a recent peak.
By one measure, the S&P 500 had exited correction territory in late June, when it completed of 10% higher from its correction low of 2,581, according to Dow Jones Market Data. However, many market technicians say that an asset doesn’t exit a correction until it puts in a record close.
According to Dow Jones Market Data, the S&P 500 has gone the longest period without a record since a 288-trading day stretch from May 2015 to July 2016.
The move for the S&P 500 index comes as the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.86% also produced an all-time closing high, marking the latest in more than two dozen such records for the technology-laden gauge in 2018.
The Dow, however, remains about 3% short of its all-time closing high hit Jan. 26. The drought for the blue-chip gauge is 146 trading days (including Friday’s close), marking the longest since May 2015 and July 2016.
MarketWatch’s Ryan Vlastelica has noted that such lengthy fallow periods are extremely unusual. According to the data, of the past 20 S&P 500 corrections, only two lasted more than 100 trading days. The average correction length since the inception of the S&P 500 is 51 trading days. The longest stretch in correction territory ever was a period of 229 trading days that ended in 1978.
The record finish comes just two days after the bull market in stocks, by one measure, became the longest on record.
On Friday, stocks got catapulted higher after Jerome Powell affirmed the Federal Reserve’s strategy of gradually normalizing monetary policy, highlighting the strength in the economy and robust corporate results that have helped to support investment appetite for equities.
Providing critical information for the U.S. trading day. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Need to Know newsletter. Sign up here.
