Why Are Stocks Up? Nobody Knows

A torrent of bad news hasn’t been enough to sink the market

“The market rallied early this morning for reasons nobody understands and nobody predicted.”

Thus began a brilliant, but fake, Wall Street Journal article courtesy of The Weekly Standard back in 1998. 

https://jasonzweig.com/the-first-totally-honest-stock-market-story

In 2025, something similar could be said about the market’s performance for much of the year: Few predicted it, and even fewer could coherently explain it. 

Extend the time horizon to months, and the weirdness multiplies. 

For example, there were notable double-digit rallies lasting a couple of months apiece in 2007 and 2008 just as the wheels clearly were falling off the housing market.

Even if high tariffs on vital trading partners like the European Union and Japan are postponed again, those already enacted are the highest since the 1930s.

And the index itself? Up 7%, and by 27% since the April low—one of its fastest advances ever.

Spencer Jakab Wall Street Journal 22 July 2025

https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/why-are-stocks-up-nobody-knows-e40e5f42