The stock market is struggling to hit new highs because a wave of huge cash raises drained money out of it — a temporary drag, not a sign the market is broken.

• Big companies pulled tens of billions out of the market in just eight weeks by raising cash.
• Google, SpaceX, Meta, and SK Hynix all tapped investors for money in early June.
• All that fundraising sucked cash away that would otherwise flow into stocks.
• The weakness is mostly in big tech and hardware names, not the whole market.
• The average stock is actually doing fine — the equal-weight S&P 500 is at record highs.

Outlook: Once this rush of cash raises passes, the pressure holding stocks back should ease.