Stock market guru Jeremy Siegel, finance professor at University of Pennsylvania, has been saying all year that the Dow Jones Industrial Average will hit 18,000 by Dec. 31.
But now he's hedging his bet. "I'm going to say it's 50-50" whether that indeed occurs,
Siegel told CNBC. "Perhaps I've been sticking my neck out too much. . . . Now, no one can say I'm wrong."
A move to 18,000 would represent a 7.9 percent increase from Friday's early level of 16,678.
To be sure, Siegel said his forecast "looks more likely now than it did about 10 days ago," when the Dow dropped 9 percent from its Sept. 19 record high.
"It certainly looks like we put in a bottom last week," he said. "Of course with this rapid comeback, almost two-thirds of the decline, it [the market] might take a rest far little while."
Siegel noted that third-quarter earnings reports have shown strength and that November and December are historically strong months for stocks.
Other experts are cautious on stocks too.
"I remain unconvinced that this is a back to the races environment," James Abate, chief investment officer at Centre Funds,
told Bloomberg.
"Sentiment got way too complacent in September, and we’ve had overseas [economic] weakness concerns about Europe and China. Earnings are solid but revenue growth is down from the second quarter, and Ebola has been another snowflake in that avalanche."
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