Nothing like the recovery in the US stock market has ever been seen before. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the time it took for shares to regain their previous peak was measured in decades. After the global financial crisis of 2008, it was measured in years. This time it has taken less than five months – from a low on 23 March – for the S&P 500 to regain all its lost ground and hit a new high. At the time, not even the most bullish trader would have been bet on such a rapid recovery, but five factors explain the remarkable turnaround.

1. Federal Reserve action

Even while the market was crashing in early March, America’s central bank was acting to reassure investors that it would go to any lengths to support the world’s biggest economy and prevent a financial crisis.