The Stock Market Is Still Trading Near Record Highs. Here's the Biggest Risk Investors Are Overlooking.
2026-06-03 19:11:00 ET
The U.S. stock market keeps setting records. The S&P 500 closed above 7,600 for the first time on June 2, its 24th record high of 2026, with the Nasdaq and Dow notching records the same day.
The funds most people use to own the market have ridden the move. The two giant S&P 500 trackers -- the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEMKT: SPY) -- sit near all-time highs, as does the tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ) . The S&P 500 is up about 11% year to date, a striking recovery from a fear-driven pullback earlier this year that briefly pushed it into the red.
But there's a risk brewing, and it's arguably not getting enough attention: Inflation has started to reheat just as many of the companies powering the market have been piling debt onto their balance sheets to fund the artificial intelligence (AI) build-out.
NASDAQ: QQQ
QQQ Trading
-0.26% G/L:
$740.415 Last:
21,689,442 Volume:
$735.48 Open:
