Stock Strategists Slash S&P Targets at Faster Pace Than in Pandemic

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on April 17.

Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

Wall Street’s leading prognosticators are cutting their 2025 outlooks for the S&P 500 Index at a faster pace than at the start of the pandemic, though many still expect equities to finish the year higher.

Worries over how US tariff policy will impact economic growth and corporate profits have pushed strategists to slash their average year-end target for the US equities benchmark to 6,047 from 6,539 — a decline of 7.5%, according to a surveyBloomberg Terminal by Bloomberg. By comparison, they cut year-end views by 5% between the S&P 500’s high in February 2020Bloomberg Terminal and March 2020Bloomberg Terminal, when stocks were whipsawed by record volatility tied to the Covid-19 pandemic.