Last week, it was the Commonwealth Bank becoming the first Australian stock to top the $300 billion mark with absolutely no one convinced this was a true reflection of its worth.

Early this week, the entire ASX 200 was setting record highs for the first time since February as one renowned global equities strategist described Australia as the “stagnation nation”.

Elon Musk’s criticism of Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill highlights one of many economic fissures that could crack the sharemarket.Credit: AFP

It is why professional investors are now being dragged into what some have dubbed the “grumpy rally”.

It is a reference to the volume of money coming in late – not just in Australia – to catch the red-hot updraft of stock prices that has dragged global sharemarkets to within spitting distance of record highs despite the ongoing Trump chaos and rising risks.

The latest Middle East conflict between Israel and Iran may have tempered markets on Friday, but for how long before the rise continues?

Retail investors have driven the rally, and professional investors who knew better and waited for the sky to fall are being forced to chase the market or be left behind.

The Morgan Stanley Australia Summit this week gathered some of these professional investors in Sydney to hear one of the finance world’s most respected investors, Oaktree Capital’s Howard Marks, give his verdict on the incongruous scene.

“I don’t think there’s a bubble at the moment,” Marks said. He described the current stock prices as “lofty not nutty” despite admitting that the broadest........

© The Sydney Morning Herald