A summer rally has closed the books on the bear market of 2022, but plenty of market experts remain skeptical about the new bull market. It became official in early June, when the S&P 500 index closed 20% above its October 2022 bottom, the traditional indication that a new round of market gains is under way. The blue-chip barometer closed at 4450 on June 30.
As stocks have continued to grind higher this year, a number of Wall Street analysts have become bull-market converts, boosting their year-end forecasts for stock prices overall. “Admittedly, we entered the year more cautious given the host of uncertainties the market faced, but it seems that all the doom and gloom that many others were prognosticating has yet to come to fruition,” says strategist Brian Belski, at BMO Capital.
