We Just Witnessed the S&P 500 Make History for the 7th Time in 75 Years -- and It Points to the Stock Market Soaring Over the Next 12 Months

An exceptionally rare occurrence for Wall Street's benchmark index bodes well for optimistic investors.

For more than a century, Wall Street has been a wealth-creating machine for patient investors. Though other asset classes have enjoyed solid nominal gains, such as gold, oil, real estate, and Treasury bonds, nothing has come remotely close to the annualized return of stocks over the long run.

But just because stocks have a knack for making long-term investors richer, it doesn't mean they move from Point A to B in a straight line.

After the broad-based S&P 500 ( ^GSPC 1.03% ) reached its all-time closing high in mid-February, the iconic Dow Jones Industrial Average ( ^DJI 1.05% ) , S&P 500, and growth-fueled Nasdaq Composite ( ^IXIC 1.20% ) went on a roller-coas