In many ways, market trends in 2024 seemed like a continuation of those in 2023.

The US economy remained on its path to a soft landing.

Artificial intelligence companies retained their dominance and repeatedly beat earnings.

Below, we break down how each selectee made their calls and share their top forecasts for 2025.

As the index sits just below 6,100, some strategists were closer than most with their predictions.

“Sentiment was ridiculously bearish for the kind of year we were having,” DeGraaf said.

“That’s usually bullish.

We call it the skeptical advance.”

“We still like what we see,” he said.

Bartels has been bullish since the stock market bottomed out in late 2022.

With the index now north of 6,000, that optimism has proven correct.

“I think people are underestimating the improvement in productivity from AI,” Bartels told Business Insider.

“Productivity will continue to improve just like we saw from 1995 to 2000.”

Bartels is confident that the S&P 500 willcontinue to smash expectations in 2025.

Investor sentiment was also bullish but not over-extended.

And the yield curve was still inverted despite no sign of recession.

Three years later, Draho’s prediction is well on its way to coming true.

But at least a couple of economists stuck to their guns.

Going forward, Feroli believes 2025 could very well be an uneventful year for both growth and inflation.

Dutta, however, kept with his call.

“Powell is more cautious than his counterparts.

Since then, labor market data has surprised uniformly to the downside.”

At the time, the federal funds rate was 5.25%-5.5%.

But Osmani didn’t agree with the overwhelming consensus.

Osmani based his call on the view that central banks would fail to reach their inflation targets.

Colmar said the Fed would end up cutting by 50-75 basis points in 2024.

Plus, rate cuts have come far later than the market originally expected.

“Our view was that interest rates weren’t restrictive.

Jonathan Golub saw it coming.

When this relationship has become disconnected, it has quickly reverted,” Golub wrote in June.

This represents the potential for mid- to high-single-digit Small Cap outperformance over the near term."

Heading into 2025, Golub argues in a recent client note that currently high stock valuations are justified.

He has overweight ratings on the financials, Industrials, technology, and utilities sectors.

One year later, Nvidia has broken record after record and Ramsay has repeatedly raised his target.

Other growing end markets for Nvidia chips include gaming, healthcare, and robotics.

Ramsay recently left TD Cowen, the firm said.

At the time, gold was trading at around $2,370 per ounce.