The Stock Market Did Something That Hasn’t Happened Since The Dotcom Crash

Economic calamities can be tricky to predict. It’s easy enough to determine that an economy is on an unsustainable course, but trying to tell exactly when a recession or an economic collapse is going to occur, is nearly impossible. Still, there are always warning signs that can tell us when the end is very near.

We may have witnessed one of those warning signs this week, when the stock market passed an eerily familiar milestone. On Thursday, all three stock market indices closed at all-time highs. The S&P 500 closed at 2,185.79, Nasdaq at 5,228.40, and Dow at 18,613.52.

So what’s so significant about that? The last time these indices all reached record highs on the same day, was on December 31st, 1999. Over the course of three months, these indices continued to grow and reach new highs, but by March they had all peaked. What followed was the beginning of the Dotcom crash, and the deflation of one of the biggest bubbles in history.

Of course, there’s no telling if what we’re seeing is another harbinger of economic doom. It could be a coincidence. On the other hand, it does sound ominous. What are the odds of all three stock market indices reaching a record high on the same day? It’s not a common occurrence. It sure sounds like the sort of thing that would happen at the peak of an economic bubble.