 "Wall Street strategists cut 2015 S&P 500 forecasts")
Wall Street strategists have cut 2015 targets for the S&P 500 amid concerns about slower global growth and an uncertain US rate outlook, but still expect the benchmark index to recover from a recent rout, a Reuters poll found. The S&P 500 will end the year at 2,094, according to the median forecast of more than 40 strategists polled by Reuters in the past week. That year-end target would represent just under a two per cent gain from 2014's close - the lowest annual increase for the index since 2011, when it ended nearly unchanged - but an 11 per cent gain from Monday's close of 1,881.77.
That is below the median forecast of 2,202 in a June poll, with more than half of the strategists reducing their targets since then. Among the latest, RBC Capital Markets on Monday cut its year-end S&P 500 target to 2,100 from 2,325.
U.S. stocks are down around 9 percent this year, with July-September on track to be the S&P 500's worst quarter in four years. No improvement is expected in the first half of next year. The S&P 500 is forecast at 2,100 for mid-year 2016, the poll found.
"The stock market needs a catalyst to go higher. We can't rely on the Fed. The Fed might sit on their hands for the rest of the year, which is not what the stock market wants," said Michael Mullaney, chief investment officer at Fiduciary Trust Co. in Boston, which oversees more than $11.3 billion.
The Federal Reserve's decision to hold off on raising rates at its September meeting increased selling in stocks, keeping on the table the issue of when the first U.S. rate hike in nearly a decade may take place.
