For 25 Days in Stocks, It's Been Wait a Day and It'll Be Over

(Bloomberg) -- Here’s a strategy that has worked in the stock market for almost a month: Buy it on down days.

Tuesday’s gain in the S&P 500 marked the 25th time the equity benchmark has avoided falling in consecutive sessions, the longest such streak since 2012, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.

It’s just another demonstration of how risk appetites are reasserting themselves in the market, where fear of missing out is spreading. Amid a growing willingness to embrace stocks, pullbacks have become shallow. The S&P 500 last fell more than 1% on Oct. 8. Since them, no daily loss has exceeded 0.4%.

U.S. stocks rose for the fourth time in five days, with the S&P 500 hovering near a record high. While the index briefly turned lower as President Donald Trump didn’t add much insight into trade negotiations with China in a scheduled speech, it ended the session up 0.2%.

“If yesterday is any indication of investors’ current appetite for risk, then we need to be ready for more dip buying, whenever and wherever the next pullback takes us,” said Frank Cappelleri, senior equity trader and market technician at Instinet in New York.

Better-than-expected earnings and hopes for the first-phase deal between the U.S. and China have fueled a risk rally, extending the S&P 500’s gain for the year to 23%.

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