The rally back to the record highs for the S & P 500 is already spurring at least one Wall Street shop to raise its expectations for the year. BMO Capital Markets strategist Brian Belski said in a note to clients Wednesday that he is raising his year-end target for the S & P 500 by almost 10% — to 5,600 from 5,100. The new target is roughly 6.7% above where the index closed on Tuesday and the highest among major Wall Street analysts, according to the CNBC Market Strategist Survey . "In late February we decided to draw a line in the sand with respect to our 2024 S & P 500 price target of 5,100 since we believed market performance had run a little too far, too fast given the significant rebound from the Oct'23 low. Now that roughly three months have passed since that report it has become clear to us that we underestimated the strength of the market momentum," Belski said in the note. .SPX YTD mountain The S & P 500 has rebounded to record highs. BMO did not make changes to its market-wide earnings target. Instead, Belski compared this year with the market rallies in 2021 and 2023, "where we did not give enough credit to the strength of market momentum, something we are trying to avoid this time around." "Historical performance patterns suggest continued gains given the level of YTD performance. And while we still expect there to be a more significant pullback at some point, it is likely to occur at a much higher level than we previously anticipated, meaning the eventual rebound will also begin at a higher base," Belski said. The S & P 500 hit an intraday all-time high on Wednesday morning, trading near 5,279. Belski will appear on CNBC's Fast Money Halftime Report at noon ET on Wednesday. — CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed reporting.
