Up, up, and away! US equities marched to fresh record highs after the latest payrolls numbers, with the S&P 500 chalking up its sixth consecutive weekly gain, its best run since October 2024. The Nasdaq 100 joined the party with a sixth straight weekly advance, while small-caps quietly stretched their winning streak to seven weeks.
This will be one of the key topics I will be discussing with a number of investors in an upcoming webinar, because markets are once again entering that familiar phase where optimism starts to feel a little too comfortable.
As always, while the headlines celebrate new highs and social media suddenly turns into a festival of market geniuses, it is worth remembering that markets rarely move in straight lines forever. Some investors are now worried they are missing out, while others are convinced this is the calm before another storm. In reality, both camps are probably refreshing their charts every five minutes while pretending to be long-term investors.
I will also touch on what these moves could mean for our positioning, and why disciplined portfolio construction matters even more when markets appear almost too easy.