--- title: 'A Record Share of Americans Say the Stock Market Is Primed to Fall: Gallup' description: No one can accurately predict where stocks are heading, but a record share of Americans in a new poll think the stock market will fall soon. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 501 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2023-02-06T17:55:12.000Z' modified: '2024-05-08T06:00:43.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - News - stocks word_count: 463 canonical: https://money.com/stock-market-predictions-fall-gallup/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Collage of heads in panic over a stock market graph going down](https://img.money.com/2023/02/News-People-Think-Stock-crash.jpg) The share of people who think the stock market will fall in the first half of the year is at the highest level ever recorded in a [Gallup poll](https://news.gallup.com/poll/469322/americans-pessimistic-inflation-stock-market.aspx). ## What the research says - Gallup interviewed more than 1,000 U.S. adults between Jan. 2 and Jan. 22 to gauge their perceptions on where the economy is heading in the first half of the year. - A record-setting 48% of Americans told Gallup that, over the next six months, the stock market will go down. - 18% said stocks will remain the same, while 31% said they will go up. The pessimism isn’t contained to [stocks](https://money.com/how-to-buy-stocks/). In Gallup’s survey, 67% of respondents said that [inflation](https://money.com/inflation-government-biggest-problem-united-states/) will go up over that same time period. Many respondents were also worried about [rising interest rates](https://money.com/fed-interest-rate-hike-february-2023/) and the possibility of a worsening [job market](https://money.com/unemployment-january-jobs-report-stock-market/). ## Keep in mind Gallup has conducted similar surveys since 2003. However, the firm did not ask that specific stock market question during the Great Recession. - “It is possible Americans would have been even more pessimistic than now about the stock market during the Great Recession and financial crisis, when stocks lost much more value than they did in 2022,” the research firm said in the report. Still, 2022 was gloomy for investors, and last year’s poor performance was likely fresh in the minds of respondents. - The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 9% last year. - The benchmark [S&P 500](https://money.com/how-to-invest-in-sp500/) plummeted roughly 20% - And the tech-heavy Nasdaq fared the worst, diving 33%. ## On the other hand Despite Americans’ low expectations in the months ahead, [markets are off to a strong start](https://money.com/where-stock-market-heading-february-2023/) this year. The recently battered Nasdaq, for example, [mounted a comeback](https://money.com/tech-stocks-rise-meta-alphabet-amazon/) and is up about 15% so far in 2023. Some experts believe a strong start to the year can be indicative of what’s to come. - “In six months things are likely to look much better than they do now in most ways, giving the markets a boost toward year-end,” wrote Brad McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network, in a blog post. ## What it means for you It’s important to remember that the markets are impossible to predict, and trying to time the stock market is risky. Financial experts typically advise investors ignore [monthly fluctuations](https://money.com/stock-market-volatility-impulse-trades-study/) and implement a long-term investment strategy — such as dollar-cost averaging, where the investor sets aside a fixed amount of money to be put into the market at regular intervals. Those looking to wholly avoid the volatility of stock markets may find some solace in [high-yield savings accounts](https://money.com/best-high-yield-savings-accounts/), many of which are boasting [APYs of 3% or more](https://money.com/high-yield-savings-accounts-3-percent/). ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/stock-market-predictions-fall-gallup/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Stock Market", "item": "https://money.com/stock-market/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "A Record Share of Americans Say the Stock Market Is Primed to Fall: Gallup" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/stock-market-predictions-fall-gallup/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/stock-market-predictions-fall-gallup/", "name": "A Record Share of Americans Say the Stock Market Is Primed to Fall: Gallup", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2023-02-06T17:55:12.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/stock-market-predictions-fall-gallup/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/stock-market-predictions-fall-gallup/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-08T06:00:43.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "A Record Share of Americans Say the Stock Market Is Primed to Fall: Gallup", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2023/02/News-People-Think-Stock-crash.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "News-People-Think-Stock-Crash" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. 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