How High is Up? Stocks at Record Levels and Going Higher; Wells Fargo Says S&P Will Hit 7,007 in 2025

It's net even Christmas yet, but investors are gifting themselves to all-time highs on the major indices.

On Tuesday, the NASDAQ and S&P both closed at record highs, the Dow took a breather, but stock market analysts are predicting 2025 to be another banner year. Both Deutsche Bank and Yardeni Research have called for the S&P 500 to finish 2025 at 7,000, but the braintrust over at Wells Fargo (yep, those people famous for opening fake bank accounts), led by Christopher Harvey and his team, issued a 2025 year-end target of 7,007, marking his territory as the highest prediction to date. In pissing contest terms, Harvey is top dog.

Time will tell, but there's little doubt that the ongoing stock bubble players don't seem to notice any impediment against soaring into the stratosphere. Who knew making money could be so easy?

For those keeping score, the Shiller PE finished yesterday at the second-highest level ever, 38.61, just ahead of the October 2021 level of 38.58, now chasing the record from November 1999, 44.19.

Color us skeptical.

It used to be common knowledge that when everybody is bullish, it's a good time to be bearish. On that note, exactly why is Warren Buffett hoarding cash? His Berkshire Hathaway holding company is sitting on a dollar stack of $325 billion, enough to buy outright 476 individual companies in the S&P 500. Maybe he's waiting for prices to fall so he can buy them all, except, probably the Magnificent 7 tech giants, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Nvidia, et.al.

Has the old man lost his touch? Is he living in the past, when prudence was virtuous and speculation was an art perfected only by the best and brightest, not everyday momentum traders or yield-chasers suffering from FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)?

Well, it's the holiday season, after all, so why throw cold water on the Christmas parade? After all, in a little more than a month, Joe Biden and all the lefties will begin to fade into the woodwork, Donald Trump will lead the grand MAGA movement, everybody will benefit, and America will re-emerge as the greatest place on earth.

Actually, there is some believability to that argument and over here at Money Daily we're all for it.

It just sounds too good to be true, if only because stocks are already well extended. Nobody ever suggested, “buy high, sell higher.”

Maybe Moe, Larry and Curly can provide some clues.

At the Close, Tuesday, December 3, 2024:
Dow: 44,705.53, -76.47 (-0.17%)
NASDAQ: 19,480.91, +76.96 (+0.40%)
S&P 500: 6,049.88, +2.73 (+0.05%)
NYSE Composite: 20,185.81, -27.41 (-0.14%)