The Federal Reserve raised interest rates again after reports that the annual rate of inflation, though still painfully high, dropped a bit in November, to 7.1 per cent from 7.7 per cent in October.

If you want to know what these and other economic developments mean for the stock market in the year ahead, there are plenty of forecasts coming out of Wall Street. It is December, after all, when investment strategists gear up and produce earnest, specific forecasts for where the S&P 500 will be at the end of 2023.