A “fear of missing out” has gripped global markets, lifting everything from stocks to cryptocurrencies to record highs and forcing even staunch bears to throw in the towel.
US equities are at the epicentre of the worldwide rush into stocks that has almost doubled the MSCI All-World share index since the coronavirus crisis nadir in March 2020 — one of the most powerful runs for global equities in history.
Wall Street’s S&P 500 this week sealed its longest streak of hitting record highs since 1964 before pulling back slightly, according to Bank of America. Meanwhile, highly-speculative digital assets such as bitcoin, ethereum and “meme coins” such as Shiba Inu have shot higher, bringing the crypto market value to about $3tn from less than $500bn at this time last year.