How low could stocks go? Much further, say Wall Street analysts

In the midst of a bear market and with the Federal Reserve expected to hike interest rates even further, leading Wall Street analysts are eyeing one question with increasing concern: Just how much further could stocks fall? The precise answer is impossible to predict, but experts told The Hill they expect investors to see more pain before growth in the economy resumes. 

“Based on our client discussions, a majority of equity investors have adopted the view that a hard landing scenario is inevitable and their focus is on the timing, magnitude, and duration of a potential recession and investment strategies for that outlook,” Goldman Sachs analysts David Kostin and Ben Snider wrote in a note to investors last week. 

Major stock indices have now entered a bear market, indicating a drop of 20 percent from recent highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average of major U.S. companies fell more than 300 points Monday to close at 29,260, down 20.5 percent from a January high of 36,800. 

The S&P 500 is down almost 24 percent on the year from nearly 4,800 in January. The technology-heavy Nasdaq index has lost more than 30 percent of its value over the same period, hurting from the higher debt levels its companies hold that make them particularly vulnerable to interest rate hikes.