Marko Kolanovic and John Stoltzfus, two of the loudest stock bulls on all of Wall Street, were convinced of one thing at the outset of 2022: The Federal Reserve would go slow, very slow, with its plan to lift interest rates. Nevermind that inflation had already soared to its highest level in four decades. The rate increases, they said, would come in increments so small that financial markets would barely feel them.
And so Kolanovic, JPMorgan Chase's co-head of global research, predicted a broad rally. He and his team pinned the S&P 500 Index at 5,050 by the end of 2022. Stoltzfus, the chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer, was even bolder: 5,330.