If Wall Street’s gurus get 2026 right, US stocks may soon qualify for a history lesson. Another year of gains would turn the current rally into the longest uninterrupted run since the lead-up to the Global Financial Crisis.
According to a recent article by Bloomberg News, sell-side strategists are marching in unusually tight formation. The average year-end S&P 500 forecast implies roughly a 9% gain in 2026, and notably, not a single one of the 21 analysts surveyed is projecting a decline. Consensus, it seems, has rarely looked this tidy.
The real question is less about whether markets can continue higher and more about what this remarkable alignment actually represents. Is it a reflection of durable fundamentals and earnings strength or simply the comforting calm that emerges when nearly everyone agrees, a condition that history suggests is not always when markets are at their most relaxed.
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