Abby Joseph Cohen

Abby Joseph Cohen (born 1952 in Queens, New York) is an American economist and financial analyst on Wall Street. She is a partner and—as of March 2008—Senior U.S. investment strategist at Goldman Sachs responsible for leadership of the firm's Global Markets Institute. Prior to that date, she was Chief Investment Strategist.^[1] In 2001 she was named one of the 30 most powerful women in America by Ladies Home Journal.

Education

Cohen earned a B.A. in economics and computer science from Cornell University (1973) and an M.S. in economics from George Washington University (1976).^[2][3] She also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation (1980).^[4]

In 1973 she married David Cohen. They have two daughters.

Career

Cohen began her career as an economist in 1973 at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. serving until 1977. She worked as an economist and quantitative research director for T. Rowe Price Associates. She obtained her Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder designation in 1980. From 1983 until 1988, Cohen was the vice president in charge of investment strategy at Drexel Burnham Lambert.

Following the Michael Milken fiasco and subsequent United States Department of Justice investigation into Drexel Burnham Lambert's affairs that led to the firm's demise, Cohen worked for a short time with Barclays de Zoete Wedd, then joined Goldman Sachs in New York City as a vice president and co-chair of the Investment Policy Committee in 1990, and was named a managing director in 1996.

Successes and Failures

She is famous for predicting the bull market of the 1990s early in the decade. However, she failed to predict the dramatic stock market decline of the early 2000s and developed a reputation as a so-called "perma-bull" and was ridiculed for her continuous bullish predictions after March 2000 as market indices fell. Her reputation was further damaged when she failed to foresee the great crash of 2008. On a CNBC appearance in March 2008, she predicted S&P 500 at 1550 by end 2008.

In an August 10, 2007 appearance on CNBC Abby Joseph Cohen predicted the S&P 500 would rally to 1,600 by December.

In December 2007 Abby Joseph Cohen predicted the S&P 500 index would reach 1,675 in 2008. The S&P 500 traded as low as 741.02 by November 2008, 55% below her prediction.

On March 8, 2008 Goldman Sachs announced that Abby Joseph Cohen was being replaced by David Kostin as the bank's chief forecaster.

On May 1, 2009 Abby Joseph Cohen predicted, "The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index may jump 20 percent to 1,050 over the next six to 12 months as investors buy stocks trading at low valuations."^[5]

On August 6, 2009 Abby Joseph Cohen declared, "the new bull market has begun,"^[6] and proclaimed Goldman Sachs sees the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index .SPX in a range of 1,050-1,100 toward year-end. The S&P 500 index traded around 1,000 on August 6, 2009, after a 50% run-up from the year's low.

Civic Works

Abby Joseph Cohen is a trustee of Cornell University and is the Chairman of the Board of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

References