S&P 500's 2024 rally shocked forecasters expecting it to fizzle
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By this time last year, the stock market's rally had blown past even the most optimistic targets and Wall Street forecasters were convinced it couldn't keep up the dizzying pace. So as strategists at Bank of America Corp., Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other big firms sent out their calls for 2024, a consensus took shape: After surging more than 20% as artificial intelligence breakthroughs unleashed a tech-stock boom and the economy kept defying the doomsayers, the S&P 500 Index would likely scratch out only a modest gain. As the Federal Reserve shifted to cutting interest rates, Treasuries were seen as ripe to give equities a run for their money. What followed, instead, delivered another humbling to Wall Street prognosticators who have been caught off guard by the market's twists and turns ever since the end of the pandemic. Rather than lose steam, equity prices continued to soar higher. By late January, ...