Oil Bear Case for S&P 500 Sees Chill Falling on Investments
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Why does falling oil, a boon to consumers, keep knocking down the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index? To Bank of America Corp., it’s because of the possibility companies will cancel plans for capital spending.
Earnings in the benchmark gauge for American equities may be as much as $6 a share lower than analysts forecast this year should oil stay below $50 a barrel, according to Savita Subramanian and Dan Suzuki, New York-based strategists at Bank of America. The S&P 500 has declined 3.6 percent since Dec. 29, including a five-day slide, as West Texas Intermediate crude fell below $48 a barrel for the first time since 2009. The commodity was little changed at 11:19 a.m. in New York today.