Bull Market
In its broadest definition, the 1990s technology rally represented the conclusion of a bull market that began a decade earlier, in 1987, which produced a total return in the S&P 500 of 843 percent and annual gains of 20 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg show. While the rally since 2009 has lasted only about 30 percent as long, it’s approaching the average of five years for advances that lasted more than four months since World War II.
“That momentum just went on and on and on in ’96, ’97, ’98 and ’99, and it just got completely out of hand,” Brian Barish, president of Denver-based Cambiar Investors LLC, which manages about $8 billion, said in a May 9 phone interview. “We’re still finding lots of stocks today that are very compressed for what they are,” he said. “There’s a pretty good story out there this time.”