Markets mixed as investors turn bearish even as forecasts for S&P 500 at most bullish since 2009

Markets were mixed on Tuesday.

The S&P 500 was flat while the STOXX Europe 600 fell 0.1 percent and the Nikkei 225 plunged 1.8 percent.

Oil plunged on Tuesday. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 7.3 percent while Brent fell 5.6 percent.

While the US stock market was steady on Tuesday, Larry Benedict, CEO of the Opportunistic Trader, said that the current downtrend “has a lot further to go”.

Similarly, Yousef Abbasi, global market strategist with INTL FCStone, said that “it is hard to imagine this market rallying with any sort of fervor and retaining those gains”.

“It would be very surprising to see it sort of stabilize here, and then take off,” former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said in an interview with CNN.

Indeed, professional money managers have turned sharply bearish in their outlook for the stock market and the economy, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s December survey of more than 240 professional investors.

53 percent of those surveyed see the global economy deteriorating over the next twelve months, up from 44 percent in November, the highest share of those surveyed since October 2008.

And yet, forecasts for the S&P 500 next year are more optimistic than ever. “Wall Street sees a big rally of 17% from Monday’s close,” MarketWatch noted. “That’s the biggest bull call since 2009.”