The Bull and Bear Case for 2025

ImageHow high will markets go? It was an especially festive New Year’s for investors.The S&P 500 soared by 23 percent in 2024 to cap the best two-year run in a quarter-century, a rally that even many of Wall Street’s biggest bulls failed to predict.This year, market veterans expect to see solid gains — but no repeat, DealBook’s Bernhard Warner reports.

Why? There’s uncertainty — about the Trump administration’s economic agenda, inflation and the Fed’s next move on interest rates — amid concerns that investor fervor has made some stocks, especially those tied to the artificial intelligence boom, too pricey.What experts are predicting: They see the benchmark index climbing to just below 6,700 by the end of 2025, according to FactSet, for a gain of about 13 percent from Tuesday’s close.If analysts’ models are correct, it would mark a third consecutive year of double-digit annual gains for the S&P 500.The futures market on Thursday points to a gain at the opening bell.The bull case for markets goes something like this: Consumers will continue to spend — but not so much that they re-accelerate inflation — and companies will again invest robustly in R.&D., buoying corporate profit and economic growth.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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