Mike Wilson isn’t afraid to stand out from the crowd in an industry that doesn’t often reward that type of behavior. In late 2021, the Wall Street veteran, who is now Morgan Stanley’s chief investment officer and chief U.S. equity strategist, argued that a bear market was on the way amid the toxic combination of Federal Reserve interest rate hikes and slowing economic growth—which he labeled “fire” and “ice.”
At the time, the consensus forecast on Wall Street was for the S&P 500 to rise roughly 1% to 4,825 by the end of 2022, but Wilson’s price target was the lowest of his peers at 4,400, with a bear case of below 4,000. The pessimistic prediction turned out to be correct, as the S&P 500 slipped roughly 20% last year to 3,839, earning Wilson top stock strategist honors in an October 2022 survey by Institutional Investor.
