Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson is reinforcing his status as Wall Street's most-famous bear.
The bank's top U.S. equity strategist reiterated his year-end target of 3,900 on the S&P 500 Index Wednesday, warning in an interview with Bloomberg Surveillance that a profit recession is still underway. That level implies a nearly 11% drop from where the US stock gauge is currently trading.
"Inflation is going to come down. It's not going to be good for stocks because that is where the earnings power has been coming from," said Wilson.
His view comes as the Federal Reserve is expected to pause its most aggressive interest rate-hiking blitz in decades and an artificial intelligence-powered boom helped drive the S&P 500 into a technical bull market.
Earlier this week, Wilson and his team of strategists said in a note that they expect S&P earnings to drop 16%, compared to predictions for a decline of just 2.4% for 2023 from sell-side analysts who have boosted their earnings expectations.
Wilson's team anticipates 2024 earnings-per-share growth of 23%.
The technology stocks that lead the recent market rally "had the biggest earnings recession," Wilson said.
"The presumption is that it's over," but "it's going to persist into the second half of the year," he added. "It's going to get worse before it improves next year."
Morgan Stanley's stock chief has maintained his bearish stance, even as a growing wave of peers at rival banks have ditched their gloomy outlooks.
