Stock market debate gets stuck in ’90s as bulls and bears make comparisons

Investors Debate: Which Year of the 1990s Best Matches Up with 2024?

GenZ fashion influencers aren’t the only ones trying to channel the 1990s these days. Investors likewise see plenty of current-day relevance in that decade of upheaval, renewal, technological acceleration, and eventual excess. The main stock-market argument now raging among the orneriest bears and giddiest bulls hinges on what year of the ’90s best matches up with 2024. The market skeptics are busy flagging what they see as parallels between today and 1999, the year the ’90s bull market went parabolic and sentiment came unhinged, building the behavioral and valuation excesses that culminated in the early-2000 peak and subsequent multi-year collapse. The believers in the staying power of the current bull market place us in 1995.