A Three-Year Bull Market: Feeling Better Yet?
On March 9, 2009, the stock market hit its postcrash bottom.</br></br>Today, after a three-year rally that's seen the Dow Jones Industrial Average rise 98%, from 6547 points to 12978, investors are trying to understand how to explain the good fortune, and whether it will continue.</br></br>"In March 2009, the stock market was priced for another Depression," says James Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management. "What we have come to realize is that the economy was probably never that close to depression and is now in recovery; consequently, valuations are being reversed."</br></br>Adds John Brynjolfsson, who runs hedge fund Armored Wolf: "We've been to the depths of Hades and back."</br></br>One of the biggest factors behind the three-year burst for stocks: easy money. The Federal Reserve cut interest rates and took other steps to send interest rates plummeting.