NY Times reports Morgan Stanley's chief global and United States equity strategist, Abhijit Chakrabortti, resigned Tuesday "to pursue opportunities outside the firm," according to an internal memo. His departure, reported Tuesday on Dealbreaker, came after just 17 months on the job as the firm's top equity strategist. Mr. Chakrabortti was among the most bearish forecasters on Wall Street and had predicted a drop in the S&P 500 in 2008. Bloomberg News said his 2008 prediction for the index was the most accurate on the Street, but still off by some 46 percent, as the extent of the global meltdown took most economists by surprise. A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman confirmed to Dealbook that Mr. Chakrabortti has left the firm, but gave no further details about his departure or who would replace him. In the two years before arriving at Morgan Stanley, Mr. Chakrabortti was at JPMorgan Chase (JPM), where he also made bearish forecasts. He predicted the S&P 500 would drop 9.9 percent in 2006 and gain 1.5 percent in 2007. He was off by a lot: the index climbed 14 percent in 2006 and 3.5 percent in 2007. "I very much suspect that there will be a time when a 1,440 valuation looks good," Mr. Chakrabortti told the New York Times in January 2007. The S&P closed Tuesday at 837.
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