Not everyone, though, has shared in the wealth. While investors saw their retirement accounts mushroom, nearly half the country has no money invested in pension funds, retirement plans, mutual funds or individual stocks, according to the Federal Reserve and numerous surveys by groups such as Gallup and Bankrate.
“What we have is a big inequality problem in the United States that has not been getting better,” said James J. Angel, a Georgetown University finance professor.
Analysts are divided about how long the good fortune can last, particularly because the country has rarely gone this long without some type of a pullback. The stock market has been climbing steadily since the country came out of the Great Recession in 2009. It surged anew following Trump’s election amid his promises to cut taxes and remove regulations on energy, manufacturing and other industries. The Dow Jones, a widely followed average of the stocks of 30 major corporations, stood at about 18,000 on Election Day. It approached 25,000 this week.