Wall Street Got 2022 Half Right. The Other Half Still Hurt.
Stock market prognosticators nailed the earnings outlook but missed the mark on prices by a wide margin.
A lot can go sideways in a year.
Photographer: Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg
Wall Street’s stock market soothsayers weren’t entirely wrong about 2022. In fact, S&P 500 Index earnings are on pace to match the consensus forecasts that analysts submitted about a year ago. Stock prices, however, are another story.
How could analysts and strategists have been so seemingly right about the fundamentals and so off the mark about the investment implications? A look at the year that was offers a few clues. One takeaway is that, while it’s still important to keep an eye on the sell-side research and take cues from the direction of revisions, 12-month outlooks shouldn’t be taken too literally.