Wall Street just as baffled about markets as it was last year

Sky-high valuations and the S&P 500's 100% rally from the pandemic low add to the difficulties facing strategists.

Ask a Wall Street strategist where stocks will go and the answer will almost always be, higher. That’s not the case now. 

Twelve out of the 21 forecasters tracked by Bloomberg expect the S&P 500 Index to fall into the holidays. The spread between the highest and lowest target is 24%, the third-widest in nearly a decade. The uncertainty is just as acute among some Treasury analysts, with those at Bank of America assigning a 100-point range to their 10-year yield forecast for the end of 2021.

Investors hoping for more clarity from professional prognosticators 17 months after the pandemic upended financial