A top Deutsche Bank strategist has doubled down on German equities, but said that his outlook makes the lender a “lonely bull” on them. “We have consistently been the Lonely Bull on the DAX over the past years as compared to the sell-side consensus,” Maximilian Uleer, the bank’s head of European equity and cross asset strategy, said in a Friday note. “Still, the DAX proved us wrong and substantially outperformed even our optimistic index targets for the past 3 years.” Germany’s benchmark DAX index had a stellar 2025, adding 23% over the year and outperforming all three of Wall Street’s major averages. The index rose by 20.3% in 2024 and 18.8% in 2023. The index is currently flat year-to-date, trailing the S & P 500’s 1.8% rise, the Dow’s 2.1% gain and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite’s 1.9% jump. .GDAXI YTD line DAX However, Ulee said his team saw significant upside ahead for the DAX this year, pointing to huge fiscal stimulus in Germany and a resilient global economy. “This year, on the back of the German fiscal stimuli and the broadly positive global economic backdrop, consensus joined us in our bullish stance, expecting 8% upside for the DAX,” Uleer said in his note. “In our view, thanks to strong earnings growth and improving sentiment, the DAX could rally even more. Hence, we find ourselves lonely again, forecasting 18% upside for the DAX. Sounds overly bullish? It would have been too bearish for each of the past 3 years.” Last year, historic debt reforms in Germany paved the way for major spending on defense and infrastructure, fueling bullish investor sentiment toward Europe’s largest economy. “Germany is back,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters shortly before he came into power in May. The DAX includes some of the biggest companies in Europe, including software giant SAP , insurer Allianz and defense prime Rheinmetall .