Despite December doldrums, many Wall Street analysts are bullish for 2019

Despite the market turmoil in December, many of Wall Street’s top analysts remain bullish for 2019.

A CNBC survey found that the average strategist sees the S&P 500 ending next year above 3,000.

That move would be a gain of more than 20 percent from current levels.

That would be welcome news to investors, with the S&P on pace for its worst December since the Great Depression.

The first quarter of the year tends to be generally positive for stocks.

The Dow, S&P and Nasdaq have posted average gains of more than 1 percent each – with the S&P trading positively 2/3 of the time.

While those gains tend to be modest, there are some sectors that tend to outperform.

The Consumer Discretionary and Tech sectors lead – each group logging gains in excess of 3 percent.

The Energy sector tacks on about 2 percent – that’s in a period where WTI Crude gains an average of 4 percent.