Is Dimon’s Bad, Bad Forecast Credible?

Could be, and he owns the prize for most bearish.

Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan’s irrepressible chief, has a way of capturing attention. His comment this week that the S&P 500 could fall another 20% certainly shows that. This warning helped send the index down 0.75% on Monday. But Tuesday with a bounce up, by 0.68%.

So it goes with the volatile stock market in 2022. Still, is Dimon’s very bearish outlook—it means the index would descend to just under 2,900—probable? While nobody can predict the future and conventional wisdom has been way wrong before, he is an outlier. One with a voice that everyone listens to, certainly.

Some of the more consistently negative prognosticators are Goldman Sachs’ analysts, who three weeks ago said the S&P 500 will end up at 3,600, which meant a 4% fall from that point in September. Well, the market is just under that already.

The median target of Wall Street predictors is 4,223, per a CNBC compilation. In other words, despite all, the consensus outlook is on the upside.

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And here’s an interesting nugget: Dimon’s own analysts at JPM place the S&P 500 at a very bullish level, 4,800 by the end of December.

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