Updated
Updated · Business Insider · Aug 7
Shiller CAPE Tops 42 as Analysts Challenge 26-Year Bubble Signal
Updated
Updated · Business Insider · Aug 7

Shiller CAPE Tops 42 as Analysts Challenge 26-Year Bubble Signal

2 articles · Updated · Business Insider · Aug 7

Summary

  • July’s Shiller CAPE ratio rose above 42 for the first time since 2000, reviving warnings that the S&P 500 is at its most expensive level outside the dot-com era.
  • David Rosenberg called the market “the most overpriced” in recorded history beyond the tech bubble, while earlier CAPE-based forecasts had implied decade returns as low as 1%-3%.
  • Recent market performance has undercut that signal: from a CAPE of 38 in July 2021, the S&P 500 has gained 73%, or more than 14% annualized over five years.
  • Fidelity found weak 10-year returns after high CAPE readings usually coincided with shocks such as World War II or the Great Recession, suggesting crises—not valuation alone—drove the damage.
  • Goldman Sachs strategist Ben Snider argues today’s valuations may persist, projecting 7% annualized returns as profit margins have climbed from 7% in 2000 to about 13% now.

Insights

If ten stocks generate a third of all profits, is the market's extreme concentration a dangerous bubble or a rational new normal?
Could the massive AI infrastructure spending boom be the very catalyst that breaks the market's historic valuation, rather than sustaining it?