On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that America’s major banks and brokerages were reducing their 2019 year-end targets for the S&P 500. But they didn’t reduce them by very much. Indeed, the eight institutions that the Journal cited (subscription required) in an accompanying chart are remarkably aligned in predicting that 2019 will deliver splendid gains.
On average, the stalwarts—including J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Wells Fargo—forecast that the benchmark S&P index will finish this year at around 2907, rising 16% from its December 31 close of 2507. (Optimism runs highest at JPMorgan Chase, Goldman, BTIG and BMO Capital Markets, which all predict that the S&P will rise at least 20%.)
