The Standard and Poor’s 500 may slump below 2,000 by summer, even with the Fed’s help, predicts economist

CNBC/Steve Goldstein/4-20-2020

“The U.S. economy will probably fall at an annual rate of around 20% in the second quarter, and will fall further in the third quarter. [TS Lombard chief economist Charles Dumas] said the firm’s modeling suggests earnings per share will fall about 20% and 30% this year. Giving the S&P 500 a price-to-earnings ratio of about 16 for a ‘reasonably depressed environment,’ leads to an S&P 500 below 2000.”

USAGOLD note:  Then there’s the possibility of even worse if the economic environment becomes unreasonably depressed. Widely-followed analyst Howard Marks came down with a similarly gloomy stock market assessment yesterday saying “We’re only down 15% from the all-time high of Feb. 19 … It seems to me the world is more than 15% screwed up.”