Wells Fargo Securities’ Christopher Harvey simply put Wall Avenue’s highest goal on the S&P 500 Index for 2024 primarily based on his expectation that the U.S. fairness rally will energy on by means of the yr.
Harvey, the agency’s head of fairness technique, lifted his year-end forecast on the benchmark to five,535 from 4,625 beforehand, making him the largest bull amongst strategists tracked by Bloomberg.
The expansion potential from synthetic intelligence know-how and an improved earnings outlook are among the many upside catalysts he sees, together with longer time horizons and better valuation thresholds from buyers, Harvey instructed shoppers in a observe on Monday.
“In our view, the bull market, AI’s secular development story, and index focus have shifted buyers’ consideration away from conventional valuation measures and towards longer-term development and discounting metrics,” the strategist mentioned. “For the reason that finish of 2022, buyers’ valuation thresholds appeared to lower whereas time horizons elevated, a operate of this secular optimism.”
U.S. shares have had a roaring begin to the yr, notching practically two dozen closing highs as resilient financial development helps company earnings, and with the Federal Reserve probably prepared to chop rates of interest later this yr.
The S&P 500 is up 9% because the begin of January after rising 24% final yr.
Harvey joins friends at a number of different main Wall Avenue companies — together with Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Financial institution of America Corp., and Oppenheimer Asset Administration — which have ratcheted up their 2024 outlooks for US equities in latest months.
His new name for the S&P 500 implies a roughly 6% acquire from Monday’s stage of about 5,200.