Bank of America’s Bartels Says S&P 500 to Rally on ‘Breakout’

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will gain 8 percent after it jumped to a 15-month high, said Mary Ann Bartels, a Bank of America Corp. technical analyst.

Bartels, who predicted in October that U.S. stocks would plunge, said that call was “premature” and she now expects equity markets to add to the biggest yearly rally since 2003.

“In the near term more gains are likely,” Bartels wrote in a note to clients yesterday.

The advance in the first two days of this year lifted the S&P 500 out of a 3 percent range where trading was confined for most of November and December. The “breakout,” with more stocks rising than falling, suggests the index will climb to as much as 1,230, Bartels said. The S&P yesterday advanced 0.3 percent to 1,136.52, the highest level since October 2008. (more)