By Kyra Morris, contributing editor  |  Snap!  Thus ended the S&P 500’s longest streak in history without a pullback of at least 3 percent.  The major U.S. stock indexes capped off their worst weekly performance in two years on Feb. 2 following a steep sell-off. The Dow and S&P 500 pulled back 4.1 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively. The Nasdaq lost 3.53 percent.   It happened quickly.  What changed?

January began the year with gains in every major index, catapulting investors into record highs.  The DOW and the S&P 500 had their best monthly gains since March 2016, and the Nasdaq experienced its biggest one month gain since October 2015.  The news was good. 

Equities benefited from strong economic data and solid corporate earnings growth at the start of the year. The American economy added 200,000 more jobs.