Wall Street bull market set to turn 3

History shows it may have further to go

- LEWIS KRAUSKOPF

The US stock market's bull run is almost three years old, but if history is a guide, that would make it only middle-aged.

The S&P 500 has set a series of record highs in the lead-up to Sunday's anniversary of the start of the bull market on Oct 12, 2022. On that date three years ago, the benchmark US stock index marked its lowest close for the current market cycle following a bout of monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve.

Since then, a surge in technology and other megacap stocks has propelled the index up nearly 90%. That gain is still shy of the average rise of over 170% among 14 prior bull markets since 1932, according to data from Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices. Those bull markets lasted an average of about five years.

"This isn't an old bull, and history says once they get to this point, they tend to last longer," said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group.