It's official: All three of the major U.S. stock indexes are now entrenched in a bear market. Since hitting their all-time closing highs, the iconic Dow Jones Industrial Average, benchmark S&P 500, and growth-dependent Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) have respectively shed as much as 20%, 24%, and 34% of their value.

While there's no denying that bear markets can test the resolve of both tenured and new investors, history also shows that they're the ideal opportunity to go hunting for bargains. No matter how bad things may appear for the leading indexes, a bull market rally eventually recoups all that was lost.

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Source Fool.com