2023 H1 Recap | Impressive Moments in Stock Market

Let’s review the impressive moments happened in H1 2023.

1.Bank Run: Collapse & Liquidity

Bank run began with the bankruptcy of $SVB Financial Group(SIVBQ)$ , and extends to the collapse of $Credit Suisse Group AG(CS)$ and $First Republic Bank(FRCB)$ .

The rapid bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank was ostensibly caused by floating losses of $17 billion in MBS and US Treasury investments,which was further exposed due to the issuance of stocks to cope with short-term liquidity pressures.

However, the root cause lies in the ability and experience of small and medium-sized US banks to cope with the risk of maturity mismatch.

2. Debt Crisis: X Date Drama

 For a long time, US Treasuries have been widely regarded as the world's safest "risk-free assets" because the United States, as the world's strongest country, has never defaulted on its debt.

On January 19th of this year, the US government's debt had already reached the statutory limit of $31.38 trillion, which means that the US Treasury Department will not be able to continue issuing Treasury bonds until Congress passes relevant legislation to raise the debt ceiling.

As of May 29th, President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have announced they have agreed in principle to raise the US debt ceiling and avert a default.

3. AI Heat: ChatGPT & the iPhone Moment

ChatGPT and AI concept are the heated topics in the first half of 2023.

The conversational AI-powered chatbot is seen as the next big thing in computing, and it's ignited an arms race between industry behemoths, including $Alphabet(GOOG)$ and $Microsoft(MSFT)$ .

Nvidia's CEO has weighed in on the situation, declaring it akin to the iPhone's arrival. "This is the iPhone moment of artificial intelligence," Huang said.

4. Tech Surge: Big Techs Contribute 100% Gains

Amid the AI frenzy, the eight major tech stocks in the US market - $Apple(AAPL)$ , $Microsoft(MSFT)$ , $NVIDIA Corp(NVDA)$ , $Amazon.com(AMZN)$ , $Meta Platforms, Inc.(META)$ , $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$ , $Alphabet(GOOG)$ , and $Broadcom(AVGO)$ - have contributed 100.56% to the year-to-date increase of the $S&P 500(.SPX)$ , as of the close on June 1st.

In other words, the remaining 492 companies in the S&P 500 index have contributed -0.56% to the index's gains this year.

5. Bull Market: SPX. Surpasses Former High

At the beginning of June, $S&P 500(.SPX)$  settled at 4293.93, rebounding 20% from its low point in October 2022, entering a technical bull market. It also signalled the ending of the longest bear market since the 1940s.

The S&P 500 index has been in bear market territory for 244 trading days, marking the longest duration since May 15, 1948. That year, the bear market lasted for 484 trading days. Historically, bear markets have an average duration of 142 trading days.