One of the Last Big Bears on Wall Street Turns Bullish on Stocks

News May 20, 2024 at 08:51 AM
Share & Print

Stock market bull and bear

One of Wall Street's most prominent bears has just turned positive on the outlook for U.S. stocks.

Morgan Stanley's Michael Wilson now sees the S&P 500 rising 2% by June 2025, a major about turn from his view that the benchmark will tumble 15% by December.

The strategist — whose bearish 2023 outlook failed to materialize as markets kept rallying — finally gave in and boosted his target for the S&P 500 to 5,400 points from 4,500.

That catapults his forecast from among the lowest on Wall Street to one that projects a fresh record for the index.

"In the U.S., we forecast robust EPS growth alongside modest multiple compression," Wilson wrote in .a note on Sunday with his Morgan Stanley colleagues, as they discussed the firm's second-half views across various assets.

Morgan Stanley's Wilson Hikes S&P 500 Target by 20% | Expects robust corporate earnings to drive stocks

In recent months, Wilson repeatedly stuck by his 4,500 points target for the S&P 500, even as the index notched a series of record highs, and said in March there was no justification to upgrade it given an absence of broad earnings growth.

He said last month he was steering clear of making big calls on the direction of the index, given heightened economic uncertainty.

Generally, the bank expects a "sunny macro environment," which will support risk assets in the second half of the year, although Wilson reiterated his view that broader outcomes for the economy are becoming hard to predict as data become more volatile.

Wilson's 20% upgrade leaves JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Dubravko Lakos-Bujas among the few remaining prominent bears on Wall Street.

His forecast calls for a slump of more than 20% in the S&P 500 by year end. Deutsche Bank AG strategists also raised their end-2024 target for the index to 5,500 from 5,100 on Friday.

The Morgan Stanley strategist recommends a barbell approach of quality cyclicals stocks and quality growth and maintains a long exposure to certain defensive areas such as consumer staples and utilities.

(Credit: Shutterstock)

Copyright 2024 Bloomberg. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Related Stories

Resource Center