The market sell-off is unrelenting, leading many strategists on Wall Street to rethink their outlooks for the year. Four shops cut their S & P 500 targets heading into Monday's open: Bank of America: Lowered target to 5,600 from 6,666, implying a 4.8% decline from where the index began the year. "We lower our target to 5600 but see a wide range of outcomes from here. A floor of 4000 on the S & P would represent about a 35% decline, slightly worse than the typical recessionary decline of 30%. 7000 would represent a rally of 40% from here, roughly half of the post-Covid rally and roughly two-thirds of the post-GFC rally off the bear market lows," wrote Savita Subramanian. Evercore ISI: Cut forecast to 5,600 from 6,800. "Remaking 80 years of Economic, Geopolitical and Domestic Governmental order, post WWII bedrocks — in 80 days — is messy business. Doing it with the 'sledgehammer' of a larger Tariff than 1930's Smoot-Hawley, was bound to cause Turmoil in stocks, bonds, credit and commodities. The prolonged Uncertainty has raised asset Volatility, damaged confidence and increased the odds 'Soft' data eventually 'infects' the 'Hard', causing Stagflation or outright Recession," wrote the firm's Julian Emanuel. Oppenheimer: Slashed S & P 500 forecast to 5,950 from 7,100, implying just a 1.2% gain from where the year began. "While our expectations are for cooler heads to prevail in the trade negotiation process that's likely to follow last week's tariff regime announcements the market 's reactions and percentage of recent declines in some individual stocks (as well as among major equity indices) suggests to us a need to right size expectations in the near term," wrote strategist John Stoltzfus. JPMorgan: Lowered target to 5,200 — the lowest on the CNBC Market Strategist Survey — from 6,500, signaling a decline of 11.3% for 2025 against the 2024 close. Strategist Dubravko Lakos-Bujas said: "Even though we do not believe U.S. Exceptionalism is over, this shock came at a time when valuation was rich, positioning was crowded and leadership was particularly narrow. More so, the lack of the Trump Put and disregard for stocks has further fueled the relentless selling." These were only the latest firms to reduce their forecasts. Wells Fargo and RBC Capital Markets lowered their year-end S & P 500 targets on Friday, to 6,000 and 5,550, respectively. Tariff uncertainty has pressured stocks heavily in recent days. On Friday, the S & P 500 suffered its biggest one-day slide since March 2020, putting it near a bear market decline of 20%. The declines were on track to accelerate on Monday. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 700 points, as investors continued to run from riskier assets. S & P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures were also under pressure, losing 2% each.
