Stocks, bonds and commodities are heading for their strongest simultaneous four-month rise on record, highlighting the breadth of the market recovery during the 2020 economic slowdown, The Wall Street Journal reported. Through Thursday, the S&P 500 and S&P GSCI commodities index were each up more than 25% since the end of March, while the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index added more than 3% in that span. If the gains hold during the final week of July, this would be the first time that the gauges all rose that much in a four-month period, according to a Dow Jones Market Data analysis going back to 1976. Investors and analysts attribute the broad rise in financial markets to faith in government and central-bank stimulus programs, hopes for vaccine development and wagers that the coronavirus crisis will spell opportunity for a number of large but nimble, well-placed companies at the expense of others whose struggles are deepening. The broad advance is prompting many investors who had been skeptical to pare back their cautious wagers and join the rally, giving it further fuel. Many portfolio managers believe the gains are justifiable, given expectations that economic conditions will improve and the success of policy makers in unfreezing debt markets whose functioning is crucial to American corporations.
