Barclays lowered its S&P 500 target to Wall Street's lowest level.

According to Foreks - Barclays, rising global trade tensions may limit the stock market's gains this year. Strategist Venu Krishna has reduced the S&P 500 target for 2025 from 6,600 to 5,900, indicating a modest increase of only 0.3% from the year's starting point. This forecast is the lowest among the predictions included in a CNBC survey.

Krishna notes, "In our base scenario, we assume that increasing tariffs (with China's tariffs rising but not escalating, and reciprocal tariffs reaching 5% in North Korea) will lead to a significant slowdown in U.S. activity without entering a recession, resulting in dampened earnings." Barclays emphasizes that significant uncertainties in trade policy will impact EPS forecasts, with the bull and bear scenarios heavily reliant on the extent and severity of tariffs.