S&P 500’s 2024 Rally Shocked Forecasters Expecting It to Fizzle
- Strategists had predicted a modest year for US stock benchmark
- Instead, index surged 23% in best back-to-back run since 1990s
The S&P 500 hit one record high after another and is heading to a 25% gain in 2024, capping the strongest back-to-back annual runs since the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s.
Photographer: Bloomberg/BloombergBy this time last year, the stock market’s rally had blown past even the most optimistic targets and Wall Street forecasters were convinced it couldn’t keep up the dizzying pace.
So as strategists at Bank of America Corp., Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other big firms sent out their calls for 2024, a consensus took shape: After surging more than 20% as artificial intelligence breakthroughs unleashed a tech-stock boom and the economy kept defying the doomsayers, the S&P 500 Index would likely scratch out only a modest gain. As the Federal Reserve shifted to cutting interest rates, Treasuries were seen as ripe to give equities a run for their money.