The stock market advance since late March could be termed the Terminator rally. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cyborg assassin, nothing seems able to stop it.
On June 11, global equities dropped almost 5 per cent in the biggest aftershock from the sharp declines of March, as investors were spooked by renewed Covid-19 cases and a gloomy US Federal Reserve. Even so, the FTSE All-World index has since recovered and remains on track to complete its best quarter in more than a decade.
US equities continue to lead the charge. The S&P 500 is up 21 per cent since April, on course for its best quarter in more than 20 years. The worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression, plummeting corporate earnings and rising geopolitical tensions have done little to slow the remorseless moves upwards.