
Is The New Record High In Stocks Irrational? By Fulbright Financial Consulting, PA
When stocks repeatedly break new all-time highs, as they have done in recent weeks, you have to start wonder if investors are growing irrational, overly exuberant. Here are the facts. These four charts show the latest reading of key fundamental economic factors driving record financial market prices. Let’s start with the latest figures on the nation’s gross domestic product. Third quarter growth tallied by the federal government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis came in at 1.93%. The net of three of the four factors in economic growth — business investment, net exports, and state and local government spending — did not contribute to growth but consumer strength offset them and was the source of the 1.93% quarterly growth rate for the U.S.