That tremendous carnage wiped away $1.8 trillion<\/strong> in value from the S&P 500, while the Nasdaq suffered the biggest one-day drop in its rich history.<\/p>\n The selling was driven primarily by a brutal chip stock rout, a stronger-than-expected May jobs report stoking rate-hike fears, and AI spending concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nevertheless, Flood feels that despite the market feeling overstretched, the positioning underneath doesn\u2019t look reckless.\u00a0<\/p>\n For some context, the S&P 500 has already reached 24 all-time highs, despite the tremendous concerns over inflation, Iran, private credit, and interest rates that continue to hang over Wall Street.<\/p>\n That sounds like a precarious backdrop, but Flood sees it quite differently.\u00a0<\/p>\n Consequently, Goldman\u2019s equity desk remains mostly constructive, with Flood saying the S&P 500 is expected to reach 8,000 and beyond this year.<\/p>\n That take is in line with Citibank’s team, which also raised the bank’s year-end 2026 S&P 500 target to 8,100.<\/p>\n Adding to Flood’s comments, as he said, the S&P 500 notched 24 record closing highs in 2026, including its first finish above 7,600 on June 2, before the June 5 selloff.<\/p>\n Flood believes the latest market pullback isn\u2019t the start of a deeper break, but more of a buying opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n He feels the stock market remains \u201cvery healthy\u201d as demand for stock offerings remains strong, especially from institutional investors.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to a SIFMA report, U.S. stock issuance jumped to $122.4 billion through May 2026, up 34.3% year over year, while IPO issuance skyrocketed 172.8% to $34.2 billion.\u00a0<\/p>\n More Wall Street:<\/strong><\/p>\n Even with the S&P 500 logging double-digit all-time highs, Flood feels Goldman remains mostly constructive and expects further gains ahead.<\/p>\n Moreover, Flood doesn\u2019t see investors acting with reckless FOMO and, in fact, sees discipline.\u00a0<\/p>\n He links this to Goldman\u2019s brokerage data, which shows hedge funds staying long on single stocks linked to AI and technology but also heavily hedged through shorter macro products.\u00a0<\/p>\n That creates a much healthier setup.<\/p>\n There\u2019s still plenty of skepticism, cash on the sidelines, and short exposure that can continue fueling another leg higher.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bloomberg / Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Flood\u2019s big concern, though, is centered around the labor market and earnings potentially cracking.\u00a0<\/p>\n He argued that retail investors will continue scooping up stocks, especially with the big IPOS coming before the year-end.<\/p>\n \u201cSo really, you have to watch employment, you have to watch jobs. And until we start to see job destruction, that retail bid will likely remain a healthy constant in the marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n Additionally, Goldman\u2019s data shows the last time retail investors were net sellers of U.S. stocks for over a week was in March 2020, during Covid.<\/p>\n That makes the employment situation critical to watch, because without job destruction, the retail bid is likely to remain steady.\u00a0<\/p>\n The other big concern is earnings.<\/p>\n Flood makes the case that broad disappointment across the S&P 500 will likely be \u201chighly concerning,\u201d but added that Goldman hasn\u2019t seen much evidence of that.<\/p>\n For perspective, I covered Citibank’s S&P 500 reset, where the analysts’ case was built entirely on the strength of earnings, with the team expecting S&P 500 index-level earnings to jump to an eye-popping $350 in 2026.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why Flood feels fundamentals still justify the rally, and Goldman sees a strong path for the S&P 500 to reach 8,000 and beyond this year.<\/p>\n Related: Moody\u2019s drops stunning take on the economy<\/strong><\/p>\n #Goldman #Sachs #delivers #clear #message #stock #market #investors<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Investors spent the better part of this year waiting for the stock market to finally crack in a big way. Naturally, every pullback then feels a lot bigger than it… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[246],"tags":[1546,876,1360,92,33,267,1361,91],"class_list":["post-6295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-popular","tag-clear","tag-delivers","tag-goldman","tag-investors","tag-market","tag-message","tag-sachs","tag-stock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Key S&P 500 record-close milestones in 2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n
Goldman says the market still has room to run<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n
Magnificent 7 six-month and YTD returns<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n
\nSource: Seeking Alpha\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.thestreet.com\/.image\/NDA6MDAwMDAwMDAzMDY5ODQw\/goldman-sachs-ceo-david-solomon-at-ecny.jpg?profile=rss\")
Jobs and earnings are the real warning signs<\/strong><\/h2>\n