According to the financial news app, Piper Sandler, the Wall Street investment bank, will no longer publish a single number forecast for the year-end target of the S&P 500 index, stating that this is an inefficient way to communicate with clients. Piper Sandler's Chief Investment Strategist, Michael Kantrowitz, said that predicting the absolute performance of the index has become meaningless given the concentration of companies in the S&P 500 index, with the top ten stocks accounting for 37% of the index.

Michael Kantrowitz said: 'I don't think raising the target for the S&P 500 index again has any value, because it has become a bad situation for explaining stocks, and that was the original intention.' 'It makes sense to set a target price for individual stocks, but not so much for the S&P 500 index.'

For most of 2023, Michael Kantrowitz held a pessimistic view of the US stock market, but changed his views at the end of last year. In February of this year, he once again raised his target for the S&P 500 index to 5250 points.

It is worth noting that former strategist for Canaccord Genuity LLC, Tony Dwyer, has also given up his forecast for the year-end target of the S&P 500 index. He said that only a few stocks have such a large share in the index's market cap, making it impossible to make a forecast.

Michael Kantrowitz reiterated that he is still encouraged by the US stock market but is more cautious than he was in early 2024. He advises investors to buy high-quality stocks at reasonable prices.

In addition, a survey of strategists in June showed that the highest and lowest points of the year-end target for the S&P 500 index were 43% apart, the second-highest in the past 15 years, second only to 2023.