A major aspect of stock market growth or contraction is psychological. Do investors feel like things are going well? Well, it would appear that Wall Street is feeling the warm-fuzzies right now.
Stocks are up as of today. Optimism about U.S.-China trade relations are considered to be a major driver. Tech companies are said to be especially tied to the status of those negotiations, so those stocks are up. And more and more, as tech stocks go, the rest of the market goes.
Alphabet (Google’s parent company) actually saw a slight decrease in stock prices even though they posted good profit numbers. But growth in others like Apple and Microsoft was enough to bring the sector overall up.
Hopefully the optimism is well-founded.
