Summer is over. Kids are back in school. American men and women are back to work. And one big question for investors on Wall Street is will stocks keep going up and breaking new records.
The Dow Industrials, the Nasdaq and the S-and-P 500 are all in record territory as businesses enter into the last quarter of 2018. S&P Global (SPGI) CEO Douglas Peterson tells Fortune he can’t predict where stocks will close the year, but he says he’s optimistic.
“You have low unemployment. You have high growth. You also have an economy that is very robust,” explains Peterson. “You see confidence from consumers. Confidence from business executives. These are the sorts of factors which lead to continued growth in the markets.”
He’s a man worth listening to. After all, S&P Global is in the business of collecting data. It’s been doing that for more than 150 years and has been providing intelligence for its clients all around the world. With revenues of $6 billion, the New York based company is ranked on the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest companies. S&P’s stock has been rallying along with the rest of the markets. It’s up more than 22 percent so far this year.
So what does Peterson think about forecasts for a recession in 2019? “The probability”, he says, is “still very low, under 20 percent in the next two years.”
What about a trade war? He says he encouraged by the deal between the U.S. and Mexico and that China and the U.S. are talking about trade issues important to President Trump.
“I don’t think anybody is in favor of a trade war,” says Peterson. “It’s lose-lose. Everybody loses.”
Watch the video above for more from our interview with Peterson.