June 23 (Bloomberg) — After the mighty uproar in the stock and commodities markets lately, the best part of the story may remain to be told.
It probably won’t be as dramatic as the lightning-fast bear markets that struck emerging-economy stocks, gold and some other commodities. From May 11 through June 13, the Morgan Stanley Capital International Emerging Markets Index dropped 24 percent; the Ishares Comex Gold Trust lost 22 percent, and the Ishares Silver Trust plunged 35 percent.
All three of those declines met the simplest rule-of-thumb standard for a bear market — a drop of 20 percent or more. Most traditional definitions also stipulate that the losses should occur over a sustained period. But those definitions were written in a day and age when many things took longer than they do in the 21st century.
