Is There A Risk To This Bull Market?
A look at what could end this bull market — and what hasn’t.
Every bull market eventually dies.
But it never dies from the reason everyone’s been talking about.
Through 2025, investors have been hit with a steady stream of “this will end the rally” headlines.
January’s DeepSeek Fears A Nvidia and tech selloff was triggered by a global AI panic surrounding fears about China’s Deepseek.
Inflation Spike Fears Sticky CPI reignited “higher for longer” fears. Tariff threats had the fears over rising inflation making a comeback.
Recession Worries A familiar recurring fear over a weakening consumer and a looming recession popped up yet again.
Liberation Day, April 2nd New tariff threats by the Trump administration sent the stock market tumbling to the lowest point of 2025.
U.S. Bombing of Iran In June the United States bombed three nuclear facilities in Iran.
AI Bubble The bubble talk hit a peak level in September. A story couldn’t be written about the stock market without the word bubble in the headline.
More Political Drama The threat of high tariffs returned along with a government shutdown.
Remember when tariffs were going to cause foreign investors to not want to invest in the U.S? How has that worked out?
Foreign Investors now own 18% of the U.S. equity market. That’s the largest ownership stake in history.
Foreign holdings of U.S. assets have surged to a new all-time high.
We were told this was a stock market driven only by the Mag 7. There wasn’t any others participating and a bull market couldn’t continue like that. It has clearly broadened and there is wide spread participation in this bull market.
Another popular narrative was the debt level. The Fed’s balance sheet was a punching bag and sure to spell doom. It sounded and looked good, until it didn’t.
I’m sure there has been more that slipped my mind. But you get the point.
These were events and reasons that were all supposed to kill this bull market. None of them were even able to knock it off course.
Yet here we are, markets still climbing that familiar wall of worry to continue setting new all-time highs. 36 new all-time highs so far in 2025.
So, what could actually kill this bull market?