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U.S. stocks are on pace for one of their best post-election rallies in a generation, driving all three major benchmarks to fresh all-time highs and setting up a host of Wall Street price target changes that suggest more double-digit gains over the coming year.
The S&P 500, the broadest measure of blue-chip U.S. stocks, is up around 27% so far this year and has risen around 20% since an early August slump linked to a surge in stock and bond market volatility tied to the Japanese yen.
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Since the November election, the index is up 5.15%, taking it firmly past the 6,000-point mark and well past the early and mid-2024 predictions from Wall Street analysts.
In fact, Charlie Bilello, chief market strategist at Creative Planning, notes that the current S&P 500 level is around 680 points higher than the highest of Wall Street's 2024 targets and 25% north of the average level of 4,861 points.
Perhaps not wishing to miss another leg of the market's current bull run, which began in early October 2022, forecasters are now seemingly outbidding each other for the best prediction on 2025 gains, with the latest iteration coming from Wells Fargo's Christopher Harvey.
Analyst resets S&P 500 forecast for 2025
With an admitted nod to Ian Fleming's fictional spy-novel hero James Bond and his "007" moniker, Harvey pegged the S&P 500's target at 7,007 points by the end of 2025, one of the highest targets on Wall Street.
Citing the likely effects of a business-friendly White House and its Republican allies in Congress, a broadly dovish Federal Reserve, and a resilient domestic economy, Harvey sees the financial market landscape as "a backdrop where equities continue to rally."
"On balance, we expect the Trump administration to usher in a macro environment that is increasingly favorable for stocks at a time when the Fed will be slowly reducing rates," he said.
Related: What's next for stocks after S&P 500 record high?
Many analysts see similar drivers for U.S. stocks, noting the Trump administration's desire to shed business regulations, allow leeway for more mergers and acquisitions, and lower the current corporate tax rate,
At present, Harvey sees collective S&P 500 earnings rising to $274 per share next year, up from his prior estimate of $270, with a early 2026 tally of $318.50 penciled in.
LSEG data, meanwhile, peg 2025 profits growing 14.3%, after a collective 10.2% advance this year. The data see a year-end total of just over $275 a share.