Bears Are Dead Wrong: S&P Will Reach 1,300 by Year's End, Altucher Says
Posted Mar 29, 2010 10:51am EDT by Heesun Wee in Investing, Recession
As the market continues its climb of 70 percent-plus off the lows, and the gap widens between the housing and stock markets, the bears are convinced of a downturn -- any day now. But our guest James Altucher, managing partner of Formula Capital, disagrees.
"The bears have been consistently wrong throughout this whole rally," Altucher tells Aaron in the accompanying clip. "If you followed the bears' advice at the bottom you'd be dead broke right now." For full disclosure, Altucher did not call the market crash in 2008. "Better to be consistently bullish than consistently bearish."
Altucher points to the common arguments the bears make -- and why they're wrong:
Lots of homes are in foreclosure or under water: That's true but there are bright spots in housing data including the Case-Shiller reports, Altucher notes. That housing index has been up the past six months, suggesting prices are stabilizing, he adds.
All the growth we're seeing is just inventory rebuild. Businesses cleared their inventory in anticipation of the 2010 Great Depression that never happened. Now businesses are scrambling to restock, spurring growth in the economy that's likely to last for one to two years at least. "People are going to be surprised how fast and furious this inventory rebuild is going to happen," Altucher says.
Unemployment is 9.7%.Yes but other jobs data show a rise in part-time hours, hourly pay, hours per week, and number of temporary workers. And these are all precursors to gains in fulltime jobs, Altucher explains.
"Before this is fully over we're going to see new all-time highs again. And I do think that we're going to see 1,300 by the end of the year on the S&P," Altucher says.
