Dow Jones Industrial set to hit 54,500 by year end: Reuters poll

Wall Street’s consensus view on where the Dow Jones Industrial Average finishes 2026 just got a little rosier. A Reuters poll of strategists and analysts, conducted between August 12 and August 25, puts the median year-end target for the DJIA at 54,500, up from a previous forecast of 52,500. That’s roughly a 1.7% climb from where the index sat in late August, hovering around 53,577 to 53,624. The numbers behind the optimism The DJIA already punched through its all-time high of 54,744 on August 5, 2026, so the 54,500 target actually implies the index will close the year slightly below its peak. The broader market picture tells a similar story. The S&P 500 is projected to finish 2026 at 7,900, roughly 3% above its late-August levels. The 46 respondents surveyed on the S&P 500 pointed to one number in particular as the engine behind their confidence: second-quarter earnings growth of 33.5% year-over-year for S&P 500 companies. That’s the strongest quarterly earnings expansion since 2021, when companies were bouncing back from pandemic-era disruptions. Easing inflation concerns are also doing heavy lifting. Lower oil prices have taken some of the pressure off input costs an...