Small-cap stocks may see even more gains in their future after hitting recent highs this week, according to Steven DeSanctis, an equity strategist covering small- and mid-cap companies at Jefferies. DeSanctis increased his year-end 2025 target on the Russell 2000 index to 2,665, implying about an 8% upside from Thursday's closing price. That would also mean a full-year return for the index of 20.7%, he noted. Thursday was a record-setting day for the index, as it saw its first all-time closing high since November 2021 and scored a new all-time intraday high during the session. Those gains come just a day after the Federal Reserve chose to lower its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point. "We are going with the old adage of 'Don't fight the Fed,'" the strategist wrote in a note to

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