Oppenheimer raises S&P 500 target to 5,900, second highest on Wall Street

The stock market’s record-setting run is showing no signs of slowing, according to Oppenheimer. Chief investment strategist John Stoltzfus raised his year-end S & P 500 target to 5,900 from 5,500. The new forecast implies upside of nearly 6% from Friday’s close. It’s also the second-highest target on the CNBC PRO Market Strategist survey . Stoltzfus noted that artificial intelligence has sparked a mindset shift in the market that’s driven “not so much by fear and greed but a need to invest for intermediate to longer term goals.” This change could benefit the 11 S & P 500 sectors as this “innovation cycle” shows signs of being both “cyclical and secular coupled with cross generational demographic needs.” .SPX YTD mountain S & P 500, YTD The lion’s share of this year’s gains — the S & P 500 is up more than 16% in that time — has been driven by AI chipmaker Nvidia has soared 154% in 2024, with its market cap swelling to more than $3 trillion. Meta Platforms, another AI beneficiary, is up 52% year to date. Stoltzfus added he expects the Federal Reserve to cut rates in late 2024, giving stocks another boost. “Now just days past the mid-year point of 2024 we expect the Fed to cut once or twice late in the fourth quarter as a “good faith down payment” for Main Street and Wall Street signaling that the central bank is getting closer to an end of the current rate hike cycle if not quite there yet,” he said in a note. The strategist’s initial 2024 target was 5,200. The highest current S & P 500 target belongs to Evercore ISI at 6,000. The best way to play the market’s upside from here is in “established technology companies” along with industrials exposed to agriculture, manufacturing, AI and aerospace, wrote Stoltzfus.