JP Morgan raises year-end 2021 target for S&P 500

Strategists at JP Morgan raised their year-end target for the S&P 500 and told clients that they did not anticipate that the Delta Covid-19 variant would derail the reopening of economies.

“As argued previously, reopening of the economy is not an event, but rather a process, which in our opinion is still not priced-in, and especially not now given recent market moves,” they said, according to Marketwatch.com.

The strategy team led by Dubravko Lakos-Bujas also labelled several sectors as 'strong buys' at current levels.

Those included retail, travel and leisure, semiconductors, banks and energy.

All told, they raised their year-end target for the S&P 500 from 4,400 to 4,600.

In the case of large-cap energy stocks, the broker said it saw increasing potential for a "sharp short squeeze" due to the "extreme disconnect" from fundamentals.

Growth stocks on the other hand were not such a straightforward trade and were vulnerable to Treasury note yields normalising from current low levels and to profit-taking.

Regarding the outlook for government debt yields, the strategists expected them to retrace their fall and rise into the back half of 2021.