In the five weeks since stocks broke sharply lower, the market conversation has been dominated by short-term, tactical matters: Will the recent index lows hold? Will they be “re-tested” soon? When might the 10-year Treasury yield hit 3 percent?
Yet shadowing these debates is a broader unknown: Just how late are we in the economic-expansion and bull-market cycle? This week will market nine years since the bear-market nadir of March 2009 and it’s almost as long since the last recession ended.