Goldman Sachs Switches Forecasters

'Belle of the bull market' Cohen has more pessimistic successor
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 18, 2008 6:39 AM CDT
Goldman Sachs Switches Forecasters
The markets react to news of a Fed interest rate change. Abby Cohen's successor at Goldman Sachs thinks growth this year stemming from Fed policies may be short-lived.   (Getty Images)

Goldman Sachs has replaced its famously bullish chief forecaster, Abby Joseph Cohen,  with a less upbeat analyst, Bloomberg reports. Cohen will remain as senior investment strategist, handing over the daily predictions to David Kostin. Kostin sees a decline for the S&P 500 to 1160 in the short run, and a rebound to 1,380 by year's end. Cohen, by contrast, predicted in December that the index would reach 1,675 in 2008.

"Sounds like it's a downgrade in a position,'' an analyst told Bloomberg. "People have been disappointed in her outlook over the years, and she's been pegged as overly bullish on the market.'' Cohen has long been one of Wall Street's most prominent forecasters, but her judgment was called into question after she failed to see the dot-com crash coming. (More Goldman Sachs stories.)

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