(Reuters) – BofA Global Research and Oppenheimer Asset Management on Monday became the latest Wall Street research firms to cut their year-end targets for the S&P 500 index to below the 6,000 mark in response to risks from a deepening global trade war. Oppenheimer reduced its target for the benchmark index to 5,950 from 7,100 […]
Business
BofA, Oppenheimer latest on Wall St to slash S&P 500’s annual target
Audio By Carbonatix
(Reuters) – BofA Global Research and Oppenheimer Asset Management on Monday became the latest Wall Street research firms to cut their year-end targets for the S&P 500 index to below the 6,000 mark in response to risks from a deepening global trade war.
Oppenheimer reduced its target for the benchmark index to 5,950 from 7,100 target, while BofA reduced to 5,600 from 6,666, making it one of the lowest on Wall Street.
The S&P 500 index slumped further on Monday and was down more than 20% from its all-time high, putting the benchmark index on track to confirm a bear market. [.N]
Global stock markets have seen a bruising sell-off as investors bolt to safe-haven assets on fears that President Donald Trump’s tariffs could trigger a recession in the world’s biggest economy.
“At current levels, the equity market appears oversold in our view with uncertainty at levels investors find hard to embrace,” said John Stoltzfus, chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer.
The index closed at 5,074.08 on Friday.
Stoltzfus also reduced the earnings-per-share (EPS) estimate of the index by 3.6% to $265.
Oppenheimer, which maintained its “overweight” stance on U.S. equities, said its reductions of the index target and earnings projection “do not imply a capitulation in our bullish outlook towards equities but rather a need to set expectations reasonably as to how fast and to what levels stock prices are likely to recover based on the degree of uncertainty”.
(Reporting by Rashika Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)