Byron Wien Sees S&P 500 Rallying 15%, Putin Resignation

U.S. stocks will rally for a fourth year even as economic growth slows and computer hackers destabilize a major bank, Byron Wien said in his annual list of predictions. Lower oil prices will deepen Russia’s travails, prompting President Vladimir Putin to resign, he said.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will climb 15 percent, beating the rest of world for a second year as economies in Europe and Japan fall into recessions, wrote Wien, whose prediction for a rally in Japanese stocks came true in 2014 even as calls for higher oil prices and Treasury yields flopped. Wien, the vice chairman of Blackstone’s advisory services unit, has published the “surprises” list since 1986.