Goldman Sachs Raises S&P 500 Target, Tech Stocks Dominate US Market Rise

international markets

Goldman Sachs raised its target for the S&P 500 index until the end of the year to 4,500 points, indicating that the expected rise will not be only for technology stocks, as is the case today.

The new target represents an upside of approximately 5% from current levels for the US index and is an increase from the Bank’s previous target of 4,000 points.

Goldman Sachs chief US market strategist David Kosten wrote in a note that the bank will maintain its 2023 earnings per share forecast for the index, at $224. He added that these levels are higher than the current (lower) analysts’ expectations of $206.

The S&P 500 index has risen by about 12% since the beginning of 2023. Although the index achieved, during the Friday session, modest gains of 0.1%, it was able to briefly breach the 4300 threshold during the session, which is its highest level since August.

The S&P 500 index is up 24% from the lows recorded in October, its biggest rally since the index peaked on January 4, 2022.

The S&P 500 is up 24% since October

Source: Charlie Bellello

The major technology companies are the main supporter of the US market now, as the shares of “Apple”, “Microsoft”, “Alphabet”, “Amazon”, “Nvidia”, “Meta” and “Tesla” rose unanimously by 53% since the beginning of the year. While the remaining 493 stocks in the broader index in America remained unchanged.

Technology stocks have supported the rise of the S&P500 since the beginning of the year

Source: TradingView

NVIDIA stock has captured market news since the beginning of the year, specifically during the past month, as the company officially joined the “trillion dollar” club after the market value rose from $8 billion since 2013 due to the growing momentum on artificial intelligence.

It took Nvidia to achieve a market value of $1 trillion about 30 years since the company was founded.

The number of years it took for companies to achieve a market value of over $1 trillion

Source: Roundhill Investments

And “Apple” stock was able to steal the spotlight for a few days from “Nvidia” by achieving its highest levels in history after announcing a new headset for virtual reality, so that the stock rose by approximately 41% since the beginning of the year.

And due to the increasing demand by investors for technology stocks, an index measuring the performance of technology companies compared to the S&P 500 reached its highest level since August 2000, up 33% since the beginning of the year.

Technology companies’ performance compared to the S&P500

Source: Charlie Bellello

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