Six months later, stock market struggles to return to record high

collected by :Haron Adler

referring to Thursday marks half a year since the stock market made its last all-time high, when the S&P 500 registered 2,872 after surging more than 7 percent in less than four weeks. The latest upside attempt has been the most promising, and has recently pushed the S&P 500 back above the 2,800 level. And, he adds, the average "late-cycle" phase has lasted more than two years and produced S&P 500 annual returns close to 12 percent. Only five of the 11 S&P sectors are up this year, and only four up since the market peak. It's true that S&P 500 earnings growth of more than 20 percent and record pace of share buybacks have not generated a major short-term payoff.

This stock market isn't as strong as you think, economist David Rosenberg says

"What has kept the market near record terrain are a mere six stocks — Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft and Facebook," Rosenberg said in a note to clients Wednesday. "Strip out these six flashy stocks, and the overall market has done practically nothing year-to-date."Through mid-July, Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft and Facebook had contributed nearly 80 percent to the S&P 500's gains. Netflix and Amazon are up 86 percent and 57 percent in 2018, respectively. Microsoft and Facebook have both risen more than 20 percent while Alphabet and Apple have jumped 19.8 percent and 14 percent, respectively. Rosenberg said such concentration in the stock market has not been seen since the late 1990s, just before the dot-com bubble burst.

U.S. stock market steady on strength of jobs report

As it stated in ☰BusinessU.S. stock market steady on strength of jobs reportAfter the U.S. levied tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods, China retaliated with similar tariffs on U.S. goods. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)A strong jobs report Friday pushed stocks to a positive note despite the first real shots across the bow in a trade war between the United States and China. The U.S. Labor Department's closely watched jobs report issued Friday had Wall Street wags giddy. But trade pressures are pushing the other way."Many Wall Streeters had pointed to July 6 as the trade war D-Day. Swagel said the most interesting tidbit from the jobs report may be that 601,000 Americans entered the labor force.

Just try to find a stock market year like 2018, because you won't

This year has already been remarkable for the stock market because the moves seen in 2018 are unlike any in the past, according to an analysis by Bespoke Investment Group. The most similar year to 2018 in the stock market is 1942, with a correlation coefficient of just 0.533, Bespoke found. The S&P 500 is up more than 4 percent year to date but it has not been a smooth ride. The S&P 500 has had 36 days where it rises — or falls —at least 1 percent. Market volatility has spiked this year as investors grapple with a number of different factors combining to make this year quite unique.

The stock market is about to set a bearish record

The TellThe stock market is about to set a bearish recordThe Dow and S&P 500 are poised to post their longest corrections since 1984The U.S. stock market is hours from hitting a notable milestone, but it isn't one that investors will feel particularly good about. For the S&P, exiting correction territory would require it to rise to 2,839.1, or a 10% gain from its low of the correction. In that stretch, it took the S&P 122 days to emerge from correction territory, and the Dow 123 days, according to the WSJ Market Data Group. The longest stretch in correction territory ever was a period of 229 trading days that ended in 1978. Despite the bearish record that is likely to be set at the close of trading on Monday, the market is also nearing a more positive milestone.