In 2023, while most forecasters were pessimistic about the U.S. economy and stock market, Ed Yardeni was decidedly bullish. The veteran investment strategist and founder of Yardeni Research argued that fading inflation, a stable labor market, robust earnings, and the rollout of new technologies including AI would cause the S&P 500 to soar more than 18% to 4,600 last year.
It was an optimistic, out-of-consensus outlook that proved prescient—and even slightly too bearish. The S&P 500 jumped more than 24% in 2023 to 4,769 in 2023, to the surprise of Wall Street, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite soared 43% to 15,011.
