After being burned last year by doom-and-gloom calls that failed to materialize, equities strategists can’t turn bullish fast enough, making bears a rarity as the S&P 500 Index keeps setting new records. And to the few remaining skeptics, this kind of halcyon-laced groupthink is a key reason to be cautious about the stock market in this euphoric moment. If they start to disappoint and fail to match the lofty expectations baked into stock prices, he expects the market to buckle. The highest year-end target for the S&P 500 is 6,000 from Evercore ISI’s Julian Emanuel, who just recently was warning of an imminent drop in equities. The only time that Wall Street views were more split at this point of a year was in 2023.
