You do remember Abba singing Money, Money,

They're still making it virtually.

I'm David Brancaccio.

First, the stock market, about a year ago late 2022

stock market forecasters issued their predictions for this year the

way Bloomberg News calculated the results the collective forecast was for the

S&P 500 to go up just over 6% this year.

Surprise, the S&P is up 25% year to date

with this one trading day to go.

The NASDAQ is up 45%.

Marketplace is Nancy Marshall Genser

joins me with more.

Traders are betting that we're headed for that soft landing we've heard so much about where the Federal

Reserve succeeds in raising interest rates enough to push inflation down without causing a recession.

Markets are also betting the Fed will actually start cutting interest rates as soon as this

spring.

So the S&P closed yesterday at 4, 783, I think that's just 13 points away from its all-time high.

What do we need to see from the S&P for it actually to hit a record today.

At this point just continued momentum without any market rattling surprises.

There's a group of stocks nicknamed the Magnificent 7 that's been helping push the S&P 500 up.

And they include Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon.

The thing about them is they don't need the Fed to cut interest rates

...