A Rally That Won’t Stop or a Bubble About to Pop

A Rally That Won’t Stop or a Bubble About to Pop

The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesA Future With CoronavirusVaccine InformationF.A.Q.TimelineA Rally That Won't Stop or a Bubble About to PopStock market sentiment and valuations are high, and with bonds expensive, too, there may be few safe places to turn.Credit...Nicolas OrtegaBy Conrad de AenlleAfter a volatile yet profitable 2020, Wall Street is hoping for a calm — and still profitable — 2021. Not just hoping. Expecting.Sentiment measures suggest that investors have seldom been more certain that share prices will rise. Excitement for what the year may bring explains why stock valuations are so high.But is that justified? Or are these the sorts of extremes that indicate a bubble ripe for popping?The economy and earnings are thawing from the deep freeze they were put in to control the coronavirus pandemic, and vaccines created faster than was thought possible are being distributed. But the impact of the pandemic may linger and change life in unforeseen ways, and at some point, the trillions of dollars of debt issued to prop up the economy will have to be reckoned with. And while the recent ratcheting up of political discord since the election has not slowed the rally in stocks, it may yet produce economic and