At 4pm Thursday if you popped your head out of your office window you could almost hear the bulls cheering up and down Wall Street.

By the end of the session the S&P had officially defied the odds and gained 8.8% -  its best September since 1992. As you likely know by now, it’s a remarkable feat considering September is typically the worst month of the year for stocks. 

The Dow’s performance was even better. The blue chip index tracked its best performance since 1939.

Investor appetite for risk resumed this month after economic data suggested the recovery wasn’t as bad as feared and a weaker dollar made resource names more attractive.

With the month and the quarter now closed investors are anxious for signs that the rally is sustainable.

”If (future) data and earnings confirm that a double-dip (is off the table ), October may be the month for the S&P to break above trading range and reach the highs that we saw in April," says John Canally, an economist and investment strategist at LPL Financial in a Reuters interview.