An ‘Unreasonable Rally’ Is Taking Shape—Powered by Tech and Policy Shifts
Hotter-than-expected inflation data on Tuesday didn’t rattle Wall Street—stocks climbed anyway. For James Thorne, chief market strategist at Wellington-Altus, that’s just the beginning. He’s calling for the S&P 500 to reach 7,500 by next spring—a 16% jump from current levels—putting him in rare company with bullish forecasters like Ed Yardeni.
A vocal crypto supporter, Thorne welcomed the passage of the Genius Act, which regulates stablecoins, and the pending Clarity Act, which would split digital asset oversight between the SEC and CFTC.
“Blockchain and digital assets aren’t bubbles or scams—they’re the infrastructure of the digital economy,” he says. “With regulation, audits, and global standards, they’ve earned institutional and public trust.”
Thorne dubs the current upswing “America’s unreasonable rally,” fueled by fiscal reform, technological disruption, and a resurgence of pragmatic innovation. He points to June’s rare budget surplus as proof the bond market’s doomsayers are losing their edge, even though July’s $291 billion deficit shows the battle isn’t over.
“When the worst doesn’t happen, the skeptics just change the story—deficits, inflation, regulation, geopolitics,” he says. “Wall Street has an entire industry built on bad predictions.”
Although he didn’t weigh in directly on July’s CPI report, Thorne notes that three-month annualized inflation is running at 2.3%, and believes a 50-basis-point Fed rate cut should be on the table.
He likens current White House policy to “unplugging and rebooting” the economy, with recent tariff rollbacks marking the start of a historically strong four-year cycle.
In this landscape, he sees gold and bitcoin as portfolio cornerstones, and urges investors to increase stakes in AI, blockchain, tokenization, digital infrastructure, industrials, and financials.
“A political reset, bullish market setup, and blockchain breakthroughs are converging,” Thorne says. “This is a generational opportunity for investors ready to adapt.”
