Stocks will end the year unchanged, superstar strategist Byron Wien says.
While earnings are strong, they’re already baked into stock prices, the vice chairman of Blackstone Advisory Services says.
“We're going to have a better-than-expected level of earnings, but the market has already discounted that," Wien said.
"The market (Standard & Poor’s 500 Index) ended the year at 1,115, and that's where it's going to end in 2010," he recently told CNBC.
He likes technology, healthcare and energy stocks.
Wien thinks the economy will rebound strongly enough to make the Federal Reserve raise interest rates.
But he is more focused on long-term rates than short-term rates.
"Long-term rates are the key, and I think the 10-year Treasury, now around 3.5 percent, is going to go to 5.5 percent," he said.
Wien is short Treasuries himself and says major foreign lenders to the U.S., principally China and the Middle East, are wary about their growing hoard of Treasuries.
Wien supports the idea of limiting the amount of leverage financial institutions can take.
"A number (leverage ratio) in the teens is a fair number, but not in the 20s or 30s.”
Some experts remain bullish on the stock market.
“Stocks will continue grinding higher,” John Carey, a money manager for Pioneer Investment Management, told Bloomberg.
“The business environment is very encouraging. Earnings are decent, and demand is coming back. We do seem to be experiencing economic recovery.”
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