New Delhi, Jan 4 (IANS): The S&P 500 jumped nearly 27 per cent last year, underpinned by super-supportive monetary policy from the Federal Reserve and hopes for the forthcoming Federal spending from the Joe Biden administration.

It was the third straight double-digit showing for the benchmark index, Axios reported.

As of December 31, 2021, S&P was up more than 90 per cent over the last three years, its best three-year stretch since 1999, the report said.

Even casual market historians might find the comparison with 1999 concerning, as it was almost the exact moment when the dot-com era tilted from boom to bust, the report said.

The actual high-water mark was March 24, 2000, after which the market suffered a slow-moving crash that sank stocks roughly 50 per cent over the next couple of years.

Few analysts on Wall Street foresee a similar cataclysm in the offing. Although few Wall Street analysts who predict crashes remain employed, the report said.

Analysts think that S&P 500 will rise about 10 per cent in 2022, according to FactSet data. With little clear direction at the moment, investors are crowding into some of the same mega-cap tech stocks -- Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, and most recently, Tesla -- that in recent decades have proved immune to pandemics and economic cycles alike.

Those four companies alone contributed more than 25 per cent of the total return S&P 500 investors enjoyed in 2021, according to data from S&P Dow Jones Indices, Axios reported.