S&P 500 to continue rising — or not

Analysts are divided on the outlook for the US stock market for the rest of 2017.

In an interview with MarketWatch last week, Laszlo Birinyi, president of Birinyi Associates, thinks that the US stock market has more room to run before 2017 is over.

Birinyi explained that “none of the things that concern us about the beginning of a bear market are currently in existence, like exuberance”.

At the same time, he said that there is still plenty of cash around, with “a lot of money looking to make money”.

In contrast, TIAA Investments' Brian Nick sees US stocks ending the year below current levels.

“We are going to see a leveling off in the trajectory of how fast these gains could come — especially given the fact that the price this year of the S&P 500 has grown faster than earnings have grown,” he said.

However, Nick remains optimistic for next year and thinks the S&P 500 will hit 2,600 by the end of 2018.