Art Cashin explains how stocks tend to perform in election year

S&P 500 looks on course to end this year with a well over 20% gain but Art Cashin – the Director of Floor Operations at UBS Financial Services sees continued strength in 2024.

Cashin explains his bullish view for 2024

Cashin is bullish on the benchmark index for the coming year because the U.S. Presidential Elections are scheduled for the November of 2024.

And that typically tends to be a tailwind for the equities, he told CNBC’s Bob Pisani in an interview on Thursday.

Earlier this week, John Stoltzfus of Oppenheimer also said that the S&P 500 will hit 5,200 level by the end of 2024 (find out more).

FOMC has signalled three rate cuts in 2024

Note that U.S. President Joe Biden has already announced his candidacy for re-election in 2024. And it tends to “compound even more” when a “sitting president is running or re-election”, as per Art Cashin.

Nonetheless, the UBS director did talk of a few risks heading into next year – including the possibility of rates keeping somewhat higher than expected.

But members of the Federal Open Market Committee have already signalled three rate cuts in 2024. The U.S. central bank also left its key interest rate unchanged at 5.25% to 5.5% this week.

Also on Thursday, Elyse Ausenbaugh of JPMorgan Securities said the S&P 500 could end 2024 at 5,000 level which suggests about a 6.0% upside from here.