JPMorgan analyst predicts Biden will drop out of the election

President Biden will drop out of the 2024 presidential race citing health issues and low approval ratings, a top JPMorgan Chase strategist predicted in his list of forecasts for 2024.

Michael Cembalest, who heads JPMorgan’s market investment strategy, made the shocking forecast as one of his “Ten Predicted Surprises” in his annual outlook for the new year.

He said Mr. Biden would withdraw from the election sometime between Super Tuesday on March 5 and the November election and that the president would cite his health as the reason behind the move.

Mr. Cembalest said the Democratic National Committee would nominate a replacement for the president, but did not speculate about who that would be.

“Biden has a low approval rating for a President with 10% job creation since his inauguration, although that figure is the by-product of his inauguration coinciding with the rollout of COVID vaccines and reopening the U.S. economy,” he wrote in his outlook for the year.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the prediction.

This is not the first time Mr. Cembalest predicted that Mr. Biden would bow out of the race. In a November note, he outlined what would happen if the president or former President Donald Trump, who is the front-runner for the GOP nomination, dropped out due to health reasons. He theorized that California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democratic, would replace Mr. Biden on the ticket.

Mr. Cembalest also predicted:

• Americans will boycott self-driving electric vehicles after many accidents;

• Rolling blackouts will hit New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Tennessee due to a natural gas shortage;

• A new, inhaled COVID-19 vaccine will be released this year;

• U.S. bank stocks will do well despite instability in the market.

Mr. Biden has said that he is determined to win reelection.

And despite concerns about his age and electability, he remains the overwhelming favorite to claim his party’s nomination with polls showing him heavily favored over other Democrats.

Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and self-help author Marianne Williamson are the only Democrats who are challenging Mr. Biden for the party’s presidential nomination.

Mr. Biden also suffers from weak job approval ratings. He currently has an approval rating of 38.5% compared to 56.4% who disapprove, based on an aggregate of polls compiled by​ the political statistics website FiveThirtyEight.