The S&P 500 retreated 0.2 percent in November, after the U.S. equity benchmark posted the worst Thanksgiving-week loss since 1932 as American policy makers failed to reach agreement on reducing the federal budget.
A gauge of financial stocks in the S&P 500 tumbled 4.8 percent as Fitch said Europe's debt crisis poses a threat to American banks and S&P cut credit ratings of large lenders including Bank of America Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Analysts have reduced 2012 profit estimates for companies in the S&P 500 by 4.2 percent since Aug. 4 to $108.93 a share. The projections now imply earnings will increase 10 percent next year, the slowest pace of growth since 2009.
The S&P 500 will rise to 1,265 by Dec. 31 from 1,246.96 yesterday, the median forecast of banks surveyed by Bloomberg shows.
"We're concerned that we have lower levels to plumb before we're through with this, given what's happening with the economies in Europe," Bruce McCain, who helps oversee more than $20 billion as chief investment strategist at the private- banking unit of KeyCorp in Cleveland, told Adam Johnson Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart" Nov. 29. "We have a harder time seeing positive catalysts than negative ones."