NEW YORK -- Bullish on the U.S. stock market, Abby Joseph Cohen, co-chair investment policy committee at Goldman Sachs, predicts above-average returns for 1998.
Speaking at a risk management conference in Miami sponsored by the Chicago Board Options Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the London International Financial Futures Exchange, Ms. Cohen predicted large-capitalization stocks will return 12% and small-cap stocks 15% for the year. She predicts that, at year end, the Dow Jones industrial average will be at 8,700, the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index at 1,075 and the Nasdaq composite, 1,776.
"Equity markets in the U.S. today represent better value than at any time in the last year," she said. She also sees very little change in inflation or interest rates in 1998 and no recession on the horizon.