‘It’s a great, great time for bulls’: Soft-landing views solidify in U.S. stock market

After more than a year of back-and-forth debate over whether the world’s largest economy could slip into a downturn, investors are settling into the surprising conclusion that the U.S. can manage to dodge one.

Thursday’s stronger-than-expected second-quarter GDP report — accompanied by a decline in jobless benefit claims last week, a jump in durable-goods orders in June, and the real-estate industry’s declaration that the housing recession is over — is translating into more optimism than previously seen during the current cycle. The data comes after the annual headline rate of inflation from the June consumer price index came in two weeks ago at 3%, down from a 9.1% peak a year earlier.