U.S. equities have weathered a number of storms that could have sent stocks crashing to gut-wrenching lows. Equities survived the Brexit vote that will take the U.K out of the European Union despite fears that a ‘Yes’ vote to Brexit could trigger a backlash in stocks with exposure to the Euro zone. More pointedly, U.S. equities survived the surprise victory of Donald Trump in the U.S. Presidential elections. In fact, Trump’s victory has provided stocks with bullish tailwinds to make new highs.

February 2017 is shaping up to be a particularly interesting month for U.S. equities as stocks continue to book gains despite cautious forecasts that the euphoria of Trump’s victory would have worn off. By mid-February 2016, U.S. stocks had crashed to the lowest point since April 2014. Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott notes that “we went from bust to boom where things looked darkest in January and February of last year to almost unbridled enthusiasm.”

Interestingly, the performance of equities this February contrasts with the performance of stocks at about the same time last year. This article seeks to explore how U.S. stocks are likely to fare in the next couple of months based on inferences from year-to-date performances.

Here’s how stocks have fared so far this year

The chart below shows how major U.S indexes have fared in the year-to-date period.

As seen in the chart, the S&P 500 has gained 4.41%, the NASDAQ has gained 7.42%, the Dow Jones is up 3.75%, and the Russell 2000 is up 2.91% in the year-to-date period. More interesting is the fact that the S&P 500, NASDAQ Composite, and Russell 2000 all closed at record highs on February 14 to market the third consecutive sessions of gains. S&P 500 ended the session at 2,337.58, NASDAQ ended the session at 5,782.57, and Russell 2000 ended the session at 1,396.65 after making a record high of 1,397.14.

One of the major reasons behind the gains for investors trading stocks was the optimistic words that Federal Reserve Chairwoman, Janet Yellen gave about the U.S economy during her testimony with the Senate Banking Committee on February 14. February’s testimony was Yellen’s first testimony since Trump was sworn in and she doused brewing tensions that the Fed might be worried about the potential effects of Trump’s policies.

She revealed that the fed might discuss another rate hike when it meets in March if the current bullish economic trend continues. She didn’t reveal the timeline for raising interest rates but her stance was consistent with the Fed’s plan to raise interest rates in the first half of the year.

The gains in U.S. stocks have also trickled down to equities in the global marketplace. The uptrend in global equities started in Asia as Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1% on February 14 t reverse its earlier losses. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 1.3% to cement the gains in Asia. Jingyi Pan, a market strategist at IG Group notes that “we have this strong lead that we cannot ignore from Wall Street.” 

The gains in equities are also evident in the European markets as Euro STOXX 50 climbed 0.58%. UK’s FTSE 100 was up 0.54% and France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.45%. Saxon Trade tells its investors that “it is still a little too early to know if good news from U.S. markets will continue to provide bullish tailwinds for equities in Europe and Asia.”