a wall st sign is seen near the new york stock exchange nyse in new york city us may 4 2021 reutersbrendan mcdermidfile photo new york dec 1 reuters  the sp 500 will gain 75 between now and the end of 2022 to finish at 4910 driven by earnings and economic growth that will extend this years rally according to the median prediction in a reuters poll of strategists those upbeat forecasts come even as growing concerns about the effect of a new coronavirus variant cloud the picture for the near term with wall street falling sharply on tuesday partly on concerns about the omicron variant yet the sp 500 spx remains up over 21 in 2021 benefitting from an economy reopening from pandemic lockdowns for 2022 the benchmark sp 500 will gain 75 from tuesdays close of 4567 to end the year at 4910 according to the median forecast of 45 strategists polled by reuters over the last two weeks that forecast is higher than the 4725 in the late august reuters poll although many of the latest forecasts for 2022 were given before the omicron news next year is going to slow a little bit but its still going to be stronger than trend for the economy and thats likely to extend the bull market said ryan detrick chief market strategist at lpl financial which has a 5050 yearend 2022 target on the sp 500 based on the poll the dow jones industrial average dji will finish next year at 37500 up about 87 from tuesdays close while profit growth for 2022 is expected to be well below the blowout growth seen this year when businesses bounced back from the start of the pandemic some strategists think consensus views may be underestimating strength analysts are still going to be behind the eight ball brian belski chief investment strategist at bmo capital markets said this week in a virtual chat for his yearahead outlook he forecasts the sp 500 will end 2022 at 5300 strategists in the poll mostly saw earnings expectations improving rather than worsening over the next six months higher costs from supply chain disruptions and labor prompted warnings from companies in the recent earnings season but many companies so far have been able to pass costs on to consumers wall street analysts expect sp 500 earnings to grow 79 in 2022 compared with an estimated 493 growth in 2021 according to ibes data from refinitiv many strategists in the poll however viewed a correction or pullback in the sp 500 in the next six months as likely among the latest reasons for concern federal reserve chair jerome powell signaled tuesday the us central bank would consider speeding up its withdrawal of bond purchases as inflation risks increase earlier this month the fed began reducing its purchases of treasuries and mortgagebacked securities at a pace that would put it on track to complete the winddown by mid2022 the program was introduced in early 2020 to ease the economy through the pandemic savita subramanian equity  quant strategist at bofa securities told investors in a yearahead video presentation this week that focus within the largecap space should be on companies with more stable and growing dividends that will benefit rather than be hurt from inflation we like energy and financials for inflationprotected dividends she said bofa has a 4600 yearend target on the sp 500 for 2022 reporting by caroline valetkevitch additional reporting by noel randewich chuck mikolajczak stephen culp sinead carew and alden bentley additional polling by mumal rathore milounee purohit and anant chandak editing by mark potter