Barry Ritholtz, Columnist

Bullish News From Wall Street's Bearish Seers

When the forecasters say one thing, it's worth thinking about going in the other direction.

September 30, 2016 at 4:12 PM UTC

Barry Ritholtz is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is chairman and chief investment officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management, and was previously chief market strategist at Maxim Group. He is the author of “Bailout Nation.”

And that line shows the S&P 500.
Source: deagostini/getty images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

Wall Street equity analysts sure are a gloomy lot these days. Based on the average estimate of forecasters surveyed by Bloomberg, they expect the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to finish the year 1 percent lower than yesterday’s close.

This is noteworthy because it’s so out of character. Most of the time -- 82 percent during the past decade, to be precise -- analysts are bullish. To be fair, this outlook has usually been rewarded; market rise about three-quarters of the time.