Too Much FOMO Is a Bad Thing, RBC Strategist Warns

(Bloomberg) --

As U.S. benchmark stock indexes keep hitting new highs, at least one Wall Street strategist is on alert for a potential pullback by year’s end. Lori Calvasina, head of U.S. equity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, joins the “What Goes Up” podcast to discuss why she’s sticking with a year-end target of 2,950 for the S&P 500, about 5% below where it’s currently trading.

“We view our target as a signaling mechanism as much as anything else, and at this point in time we don’t want to signal to people that we think you should chase the market up in the short term,” Calvasina says. “We think you are just plain old overbought in the equity market right now.”

“When I talk to investors and I talk to people who are more bullish, I hear the FOMO [fear of missing out] in their voices,” she says. “The entry of emotions into some of the discussions about the market seems sort of scarily familiar.’’

Also joining the podcast is Bloomberg’s Ye Xie, who discusses the U.S. trade war with China and democracy protests in Hong Kong from the perspective of a global markets reporter.  

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Topher Forhecz at tforhecz@bloomberg.net, David Rovella

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