some investors are drawing parallels between the stock market’s 2021 climb and the pattern seen in 1987 a year that saw a seemingly relentless rally completely undone by the “black monday” crash in october but there are some important differences analysts note granted the comparison does feel appropriate at least on the surface said nicholas colas cofounder of datatrek research in a wednesday note “everyone from pluggedin hedgefund managers to retail investors is making money the movie ‘wall street’ debuted in late 1987 and while this decade’s bud fox may be working from home the overall societal vibe is similar” but the comparison doesn’t look so apt when comparing the yeartodate performances of the sp 500 index spx  he said the largecap benchmark was up 36 through aug 17 1987 versus just 18 for the same period in 2021 archive 30 years after black monday could stock market crash again as for the two years prior 1985 and 1986 saw sp 500 total returns of 31 and 18 respectively matching up identically with returns in 2019 and 2020 which colas acknowledged is a bit “spooky” however he maintained the 2021 rally is still a “pale comparison” to what was going on in 1987 stocks were mostly lower on wednesday a day after the sp 500 and the dow jones industrial average djia each snapped a fivesession streak of record finishes meanwhile analysts at bespoke investment group this week pointed out that the sp 500 is on pace to set a record for well records tuesday’s alltime closing high was not only the fifth in a row it was also the 49th of 2021 that puts the index on track for 78 closing highs this year which would edge out the record 77 seen in 1995 it’s no sure thing the bespoke analysts cautioned noting that even a 5 pullback could eat into the ability to maintain a recordbreaking pace they noted that since 1950 there have been five years where the sp 500 had more than 40 record highs through aug 16 and while both 1995 and 1964 were the leaders in those years years like 1987 1997 and 1998 also had more than 40 record highs at this point in the year and none of them finished the year with more than 50 need to know labor day has been a turning point in markets the last three years here’s what one strategist sees happening next but more important what does such a rapid pace of closing highs mean for fullyear performance it’s mostly positive as one would suspect though there are exceptions including of course 1987 see table below the sp 500’s yeartodate gain is very similar to the median and average return of the five prior years in the table the analysts noted “looking ahead the median rest of year performance for the index from the close on 816 through yearend was a gain of 77 with positive returns four out of five times and more than doubling the average rest of year performance for all years since 1950” they wrote noting that “the one exception was in 1987 and it was a doozy” so what should investors make of it all the bespoke analysts noted that the usual caveats apply there’s no guarantee and past performance isn’t indicative of future results but the data does underline the observation that “strength often begets strength in the market”