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Skip NavigationMarketsBusinessInvestingTechPolitics & PolicyVideoWatchlistInvesting ClubPROLivestreamMenuThe stock market has already reached a positive milestone despite growing consternation around the artificial intelligence trade. The S & P 500 is up 12% year to date, even after last week’s 2% slide. The latest decline was driven by losses in artificial intelligence-linked names, as investors feared demand for AI may not be enough to justify the amount of capital companies are borrowing to build their networks. CoreWeave was the poster child of last week’s declines, plunging more than 25%. Semiconductor stocks Micron Technology and Advanced Micro Devices dropped 15% and 13%, respectively. But there was one bright light last week: The current bull market turned four years old. And while other bull runs have lasted much longer, this one has done something never seen before. “This is the only bull market since WWII that posted double-digit advances in each of the first four years,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA. “History offers encouragement that this bull has further to run, as the average gain in the fifth year of bull markets since WWII was nearly 21%. Only one of the bulls that lasted four years did not survive until its fifth anniversary.” Here’s how the S & P 500 did in each of the first four years of this bull market: To be sure, Stovall noted that this is also the most expensive bull market going back to World War II, with the S & P 500 trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of nearly 23. However, that valuation may be justified by strong earnings growth. S & P 500 third-quarter earnings are tracking for 29% year-over-year expansion, FactSet data shows. “We think this bull market, which recently celebrated its fourth birthday, has further to run,” he said.Read More