The Market Partied Like It Was 1932

[Zorro]

A remarkable snapback rally, after a deep coronavirus-induced plunge, took stocks into rare and, in some ways, troubling territory.

Simply enumerating the crises afflicting the United States this year is an exhausting job.

Consider that the country has already experienced a presidential impeachment trial, the onset of a tenacious coronavirus pandemic and a grave recession. Add to all of that the heartbreaking video recordings of police officers killing people of color, which vastly amplified the power of the Black Lives Matter movement and led to a presidential threat to unleash armed forces in the streets.

Enough already, right? But there’s more. Even if, by some serendipitous twist, the shocks of 2020 stopped right now, the United States would face predictable traumas already locked in the calendar — most notably an election season of monumental vitriol and consequence that has barely begun.

What’s just as extraordinary as all of this is the stock market’s reaction to it. Stocks over all are down slightly for 2020, and if you haven’t been following closely, it may look as though little has happened in the world. But the numbers plainly show that the market has been traveling in rare and, in some ways, troubling territory.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/business/stock-market-prices-irrational.html