S&P 500 History Shows Time to Settle for Less Has Arrived

Investors willing to settle for less as U.S. stocks advance are likely to end up with more, according to LPL Financial LLC. Strategists Jeffrey Buchbinder and Ryan Detrick made the case in a report Monday that highlighted the S&P 500 Index’s performance in 10 bull markets since the 1950s. In all but one case, the S&P 500 had a smaller increase in the second year than it did in the first year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. A bull market that started in 1987 was the exception. Two months into the second year of the most recent bull run, the strategists said the pace of stock-market gains “is likely to slow and to come with more volatility.”