Strategists Keep 2009 S&P 500 Price Target at 949
The Wall Street strategists that Bloomberg polls each week haven't changed their year-end S&P 500 price targets since mid-March. But by doing nothing, their collective price target has gotten much closer to the actual level of the index since the market has rallied so much.
At the start of the year, strategists as a whole were looking for a year-end S&P 500 price of 1,049, which would have meant a gain of 16.2% for the year. When the market was down more than 20% in early March, this bullish price target was pretty bad. As the market fell, strategists cut their year-end target, which is now 100 points lower at 949. But as the market has risen, they haven't increased their expectations yet, so they are now just looking for another 4.19% gain through the end of the year.
UBS and JP Morgan remain the most bullish of the bunch with a target of 1,100. And four strategists have price targets below the current level of the S&P 500, with Barclays the most bearish at 757. At the start of the year, Barclays was looking for 874.
