S&P 500 Falling Below 600?

By Tomi Kilgore

United-ICAP senior technical analyst Walter Zimmerman says the S&P 500 could rally a little further into January before beginning a “traumatic decline” for the rest of 2012, dragged down by weakness in Europe.

How traumatic? You might want to sit down for this one.

He thinks the index will reach its 2012 peak in the 1293-1311 zone, then start a “sharp and sustained drop” until December. His downside target is around 579.57.

579.57! The index would have to wipe out the March 2009 lows and fall by more than 50% current levels to reach that target. And the last time the S&P 500 traded below 600 was in the mid 1990s, when the Backstreet Boys burst on the scene and bell-bottom jeans were making a comeback.

Zimmerman’s reasoning is Europe is in an even worse shape now than it was at the beginning of the year.

“If the history of debt tells us anything it is that one cannot solve a debt crisis by lending more money to the bankrupt and the insolvent,” Zimmerman says.

Read the rest here.