NEW YORK: As major US corporations prepare to close the books on a lackluster year of profit growth, they may need to shore up confidence that 2020 will show significant improvement to keep the stock market's rally going.
"If the outlook we're getting for 2020 is similar , maybe we will hit a point where investors decide to take a pause," said Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Stamford, Connecticut.Advertisement That has helped push the Philadelphia Semiconductor index up 0.7 per cent last week after surging 60 per cent last year.
"We better enter 2020 with a running head start on earnings because there certainly was not much last year," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Capital Management in Chicago. After surging 50 per cent in the past 12 months, the S&P 500 technology sector has a PE above 21, up from 19 in early October. Tech led gains among sectors last year.
Strategists say uncertainty about the trade situation has caused some companies to be cautious with their big investments in buildings and equipment.