By the definition of "bear market", we are in a bear market. Although we're just a few percent away from a new bull market.
There's no rational or fundamental reason for a rally from these levels considering the world is in shutdown. Business are already failing and many major businesses will likely fail moving forward. The world economy will contract this year and earnings will fall short of expectations. That said - I trade technically and don't impose/mix my fundamental views with my trading. Today was a big up day and the strong trend reversal prior to the Open in spite of bad economic numbers was a big tell. I still think we can and should have a huge swing down from this area and at least test the bottom.
since Feb 2018 if you see it as an expanding triangle a-b-c-d-e, that period was the d up leg (Mar '19) don't get me wrong I've had to unlearn some technical data b/c I became too rigid around what i thought I saw and missed a lot..d was a piling period (capitulation of demand) as we now see..
Agreed ! doesn't seem rational that we churn straight up in a V like recovery...but we have to listen/learn every day to see what unfolds