Strategists forecast continuing bull market in 2016
A weak ending to 2015 and the expectation of improving profit growth in 2016 will set the stage for a single-digit gain in U.S. stocks next year, according to strategists polled by Reuters.
But even that fairly circumspect outlook faces significant risks, including rising U.S. interest rates and a lackluster global economy, the strategists said.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is forecast to end 2016 at 2,207, up 10 percent from Friday’s close of 2,012.37 and 5 percent higher than where it is expected to round off this year, according to the median forecast of 46 strategists polled by Reuters in the past week.
“We think the (bull market) is going to continue, but we’re later into the cycle, so the returns we’re expecting are lower than what we got earlier in the cycle,” said Jill Carey Hall, equity and quant strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York.
Strategists were similarly enthusiastic a year ago, when a similar poll pointed to expectations for an 11.5 percent rise in the S&P 500 for 2015.
With just three weeks left in 2015, that index is down a little over 2 percent for the year. Strategists forecast it will rally into year’s end to 2,100, up 2 percent from 2014.
Trending News
