The equity rally that’s pushed North American stock indexes to record highs in recent weeks is likely to continue for the rest of the calendar year, an expert says.
The U.S. benchmark S&P 500 Index ticked up to over 6,690 points in afternoon trading on Monday and was on track to top its latest all-time high set on Friday.
“We think the secular bull market in U.S. stocks remains very much in place,” Brian Belski, chief investment strategist at BMO Capital Markets, told BNN Bloomberg in an interview on Monday.
“Our 6,700 (S&P 500) target that we put in place in November, obviously we’re almost there. We also published a 7,000-bull case for the market in terms of the S&P 500, which for all intents and purposes, we’re headed there… so, we do think that the bull market lives on.”
Meanwhile, Canada’s benchmark stock index, the S&P/TSX composite, also hit a record high this month, and has outperformed the expectations Belski set out for the Canadian market in his 2025 base case outlook.
“Over promise and under deliver, that’s been kind of our view with respect to Canadian stocks since we came to BMO 13 and a half years ago. Our bull case for Canada has always been (that) as America goes, so goes Canada,” he said.
Belski noted that his team turned bullish on Canadian equities at roughly the midway point of 2024, expecting the TSX to outperform U.S. markets, which it has so far this year.
“We do think from now until year end on a relative basis, it will at least keep pace with the market in the U.S. but underperform slightly given the fact that the U.S. market is much more diversified, but Canada we think is headed well over 30,000,” he said.
The TSX rose in Monday afternoon trading in Toronto to above 29,961 points.
“We do think that the negative bias with respect to rhetoric in Canada has really swayed things to the positive side,” said Belski, “in terms of earnings beginning to accelerate to the upside.”
