Bull market doesn’t feel so bullish

NEW YORK — It’s a new record for stocks, but it sure doesn’t feel like it.

The biggest gainers in the past year are fuddyduddy utilities. Investors are cowering for cover in gold. And the best they’re hoping for in the current earnings season is that profits don’t fall as much as they initially feared.

It’s the second-longest bull market in history, and its old age is showing.

Still, stocks have rewarded investors who had faith to hold on. With a new high for the Standard and Poor’s 500 index on Monday, it has tripled since its low in March 2009 during the financial crisis.

The market has been hit with a string of bad news in the past year. Plunging oil prices. Falling corporate earnings. Fear over rising interest rates. Slowing growth in China. The British vote to leave the European Union.

There were scary headlines, panic selling, big drops. But there was always another rush to buy.

For all its recent gains, though, the stock market isn’t showing great confidence in the future.

Among the 10 sectors of the S&P 500, utilities are up the most, soaring 18 percent since the last high on May 21 last year, according to research firm Bespoke Investment Group. They are mostly bought for their steady dividends payments.

The bond market is signaling trouble, too. Investors tend to load up on government bonds when they’re nervous, pushing yields lower. And yields on U.S. government bonds in the past week have fallen to their lowest levels ever.

Jonathan Corpina, senior managing partner at Meridian Equity Partners, thinks the bull market is fragile.

“There’s no real conviction behind the buying,” he says.