A leading advertising industry analyst has modestly upgraded her forecast for ad spending in 2002 and modestly downgraded her medium-term outlook for an agency company.
Lauren Rich Fine, the advertising analyst for Merrill Lynch, raised her forecast for advertising spending growth this year in the United States to 4.8percentt from 2004 compared with her previous target of 4.6percentt.
But Ms. Fine cut her forecast for world ad spending in 2003 to an increase of 3percentt from 2002 rather than her previous estimate of 4percentt.
She raised her forecast for the Dow to a range of 12,400 to 12,600 from 11,300 to 11,500, and she also raised her forecast for the S&P 500 to a range of 1450 to 1500 from 1350 to 1400.
And she did not cut her forecast for corporate earnings.
Ms. Wang also cut her forecast for next year to 7.8 percent, from 8.3 percent.
Also, Lauren Rich Fine, advertising analyst for Merrill Lynch, raised her forecast for world ad spending this year.
She also lowered her forecast for American ad spending next year to an increase of 4percentt compared with 2002, from 4.2percentt.
Rebecca Lindland, with the research firm IHS Automotive, said she had reduced her forecast for Toyota's sales through 2025, which is as far into the future as IHS currently projects.
Her forecast for the Dow to end the year at around 9,300 now looks achievable, while only a month ago she seemed like a bull in deep denial that the world had changed.
