Wells Fargo strategist Christopher Harvey cuttingly reduced his expectations for the stock market in 2019, making him easily the least optimistic forecaster on Wall Street.
On the level with the sharp cut, though, pretty much every major house on the Street sees the market higher in the year in front, despite the brutal correction and potential bear market that looms over investors as 2018 comes to a furious close.
Before the new year even begins, Harvey cut his price target for the S&P 500 from an original outlook of 3,079 to a much more stifled 2,665. That’s a 13.4 percent reduction that the bank’s head of equity strategy attributed largely to distresses of an over-aggressive Federal Reserve, which hiked its benchmark interest rate four times this year, most recently on Dec. 19.
The propound “is due to our more comprehensive understanding of the Fed’s near-term philosophy and the belief that it will cause the growth deceleration to intensify,” Harvey guessed in a note to clients.
Still, the new target represents a virtually exact 13.4 percent upside from Monday’s assiduous.
Harvey’s peers all agree that stocks are heading higher, from Morgan Stanley’s 2,750 price quarry all the way up to Deutsche Bank’s robust 3,250 for the large-cap index.
Here’s a look at where Wall Street’s major forecasters stick out heading into the final trading days of 2018.