Investors have been smiling over the past couple of years as stock prices boomed. But will stocks continue their meteoric rise this year?
Standard and Poor's 500, an index of the 500 largest U.S. publicly traded corporations, jumped 23.8% last year after a 24.2% hike in 2023. It was the first time since 1997 and 1998 that the index has recorded two back-to-back years of returns above 20%, according to FactSet, a Connecticut-based financial data firm.
“(2024) was a really great year,” said Eric Braund, founder of Black Walnut Wealth Management in Traverse City.
He and other local wealth management …
