THE year 2023 concluded with exuberant festivities across stock exchanges worldwide. Throughout the past year, equity investors have reaped substantial gains. Even more so in the months leading up to the year-end, stock prices seemed to move in only one direction: upward and continually so.

In New York, investor enthusiasm propelled the S&P 500 index to nearly touch its all-time high, just 0.6 percent shy of its January 2022 record. It close