The S&P 500 closed at 4,766.18 on Friday, capping a 27% rally through 2021. That thrashed even the most bullish analyst target from December 2020.
People walk past the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street on July 15, 2021 in New York City.The S&P 500's 27% surge through 2021 thrashed nearly every Wall Street forecast from last December.Wall Street is split on whether stocks will keep soaring or stumble over the next 12 months.
Bank of America, Societe Generale, and Citigroup shared the Street's most bearish target of 3,800 at the end of 2020. Had the projection rung true, the S&P 500 would've only crept 1.2% higher. The US also got more stimulus support early in the year, albeit not as much as it enjoyed in 2020. Democrats passed a $1.9 trillion stimulus package in March, giving the economy more fiscal aid just as vaccines started hitting arms. The plan included $1,400 payments, an extension to enhanced unemployment benefits, and an expansion to the child tax credit. The months following the plan's passage saw spending surge as Americans put the direct aid to use.
Omicron's spread and the Fed's pullback have left banks with wildly different expectations for how stocks will fare in the year ahead. Firms' S&P 500 targets boast the second-largest gap in a decade, according to Bloomberg data. Analysts at Morgan Stanley and Bank of America expect the benchmark to close lower at the end of 2022, with the banks touting projections of 4,400 and 4,600, respectively.
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