After a rollercoaster of a year (stocks up, stocks down, AI hype everywhere, and the Fed acting like… ugh, let’s not even go there), Wall Street is rolling out its big promising forecasts for next year.

And honestly? Let’s hope they’re right — because some of these predictions are quite head-turning.

The boldest call so far is the S&P 500 hitting 8,000. As in “new all-time high, who dis?”

Deutsche Bank, for example, is projecting “mid-teens returns” thanks to stronger inflows, big buybacks, and the fact that most corporate earnings in 2025 have been flexing quite hard.

And their equities team says 2026 will bring robust earnings growth with valuations staying comfortably elevated. In other words, this bull market still has plenty of room to run. 🥳

Btw, they’re not alone.

HSBC and JPMorgan both see the index hitting 7,500, with JPM hinting that we could push to 8,000 if the Fed gets generous with those rate cuts.

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley is calling for 7,800, declaring the start of a “new bull market” but time will tell, of course.

Wells Fargo also joined the optimism club with a 7,800 target and a two-phase rally forecast — first half driven by “reflation hope,” second half powered by supercharged AI gains. However, they do warn about a possible bubble — but, been there, done that… hasn’t everyone by now? 😕

Ok… there is one big caveat.

Some argue that this market is riding the wealth-effect wave a little too closely — meaning stock gains are doing a lot of the heavy lifting for consumer confidence and spending. After all, country right now is very much divided between the haves and have-nots more than ever.

Hence, if markets tank and people stop feeling rich, they’ll stop spending, and boom… the broader economy catches the flu.

And that is… no bueno.

But for now? The vibes are bullish. And if these forecasts actually come true, we’ll all be celebrating like it’s almost 1999 — just hopefully without the crash after. 🥳