These Three Things Are Driving the Stock Market Rally. What to Expect Heading Into Year End.

Stock markets have sailed through the first test of the third-quarter earnings season with flying colors, while early indications from the tech sector and dovish signals from the Federal Reserve suggest the rally has plenty of fuel to power into the end of the year and beyond. Trade and tariff policy changes, the ongoing surge in gold prices and broader concerns over the risks of a bubble developing in artificial intelligence stocks may have injected a fresh round of uncertainty into global markets over the three months ending in September, but it hasn’t hurt the bottom line of Wall Street’s biggest banks. Banks are likely to get further support from the Federal Reserve, which is both signaling lower interest rates over the coming months and possibly ending the sale of assets on its $6.6 trillion balance sheet in order to ensure funding markets have ample liquidity.