Reports of a recession were greatly exaggerated. For weeks last summer, media pundits and polls forecast an impending recession after more than ten years of a bull market. Now, that talk is long gone as 2020 gets underway. A new survey of millionaires finds the majority believe the economy is strong and are optimistic about the year ahead. And with good reason---six of the first 12 trading days of the year have seen new all-time highs for stocks, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average surpassing 29,000 for the first time ever and the S&P 500 already up nearly three percent this year. "The market has been led by the big technology companies---Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Google---so it's got a lot of momentum, and I think it's going to keep going higher," says Jordan Goodman, America's Money Answers Man.
Goodman tells KTRH there are several factors that bode well for the markets in 2020. "A lot of things that were hanging over the market have now been resolved...we've got a China trade deal that's now been signed, and we have the USMCA, the trade deal with Canada and Mexico, that is actually happening," he says. "And the Federal Reserve, which a year ago was raising interest rates, lowered interest rates three times in 2019, and now it's pretty clear they're not going to change interest rates this year."
It's one thing for millionaires and big-time investors to be excited about the stock market, but the good news extends to average Americans with a 401(k). "The S&P and Dow were up about 30 percent in 2019, and so far in 2020 that trend is continuing," says Goodman. "So that's how the average person is continuing to benefit from what I would say is the greatest bull market in history."