One of the Last Big Bears on Wall Street Turns Bullish on Stocks

One of Wall Street’s most prominent bears has just turned positive on the outlook for U.S. stocks.

Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson now sees the S&P 500 rising 2% by June 2025, a major about turn from his view that the benchmark will tumble 15% by December.

The strategist — whose bearish 2023 outlook failed to materialize as markets kept rallying — finally gave in and boosted his target for the S&P 500 to 5,400 points from 4,500.

That catapults his forecast from among the lowest on Wall Street to one that projects a fresh record for the index.

“In the U.S., we forecast robust EPS growth alongside modest multiple compression,” Wilson wrote in .a note on Sunday with his Morgan Stanley colleagues, as they discussed the firm’s second-half views across various assets.

In recent months, Wilson repeatedly stuck by his 4,500 points target for the S&P 500, even as the index notched a series of record highs, and said in March there was no justification to upgrade it given an absence of broad earnings growth.

He said last month he was steering clear of making big calls on the direction of the index, given heightened economic uncertainty.