Wall Street enters bull market as benchmark S&P 500 gains +20% from October low
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The S&P 500 (SP500) on Thursday rose 0.62% to end at 4,293.93 points, closing above a key level at 4,292.44 points. The benchmark index has now risen more than 20% from a closing low of 3,577.03 points hit on October 12 last year, the technical definition of a bull market.
This year alone, the S&P 500 (SP500) has surged +11%. Back in early January, investors were reeling from a more than 19% loss in the benchmark index for 2022, weighed down by concerns over surging inflation, the Federal Reserve's hyper-aggressive rate-hiking campaign, and macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions.
A number of factors have led to the S&P 500's (SP500) advance this year:

Economic data has shown the effects of the Fed's interest rate increases - manufacturing and industrial activity has cooled, cracks have begun to appear in the highly resilient labor market and inflation has started to moderate since hitting a peak last summer.
Technology stocks have rebounded significantly after being shunned for the most part of 2022. Marquee names such as the FAANG members and Microsoft (MSFT) have been especially popular, and they have helped their cause by reporting strong quarterly results. The recent enthusiasm around artificial intelligence has also helped stocks of chipmakers and cybersecurity firms. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (COMP.IND) and Nasdaq 100 (NDX) have posted YTD returns of +26.5% and +32.4%, respectively.
Traders have increasingly made bets that the Fed will bring an end to its rate-hiking campaign this year and have even considered the possibility of rate cuts, despite little to no indication of either by central bank speakers and chair Jerome Powell. According to the CME FedWatch tool, markets are currently seeing a ~74% probability of no hike at the Fed's monetary policy committee meeting next week.

Looking at the other side of the picture, many analysts, market commentators and critics have expressed concerns over the fact that a large part of the S&P 500's (SP500) gains this year can be chalked up to a limited number of heavyweight stocks. This asymmetry has been called unsustainable.
There have also been worries over the availability of liquidity in the market after the U.S. government suspended its debt ceiling into 2025.
With plenty more economic data yet to come this year, along with five scheduled central bank meetings, it remains to be seen whether the S&P 500's (SP500) rally will sustain or will sputter out.
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