CNBC commentator Jim Cramer says President Obama is picking a fight with the stock market and that investors should turn overseas as a result.
“We have a president who is kind of turning on the stock market in a populist way,” Cramer said on the air.
“If you’re a populist, you think that the stock market is for rich people. I hear that kind of thing in his voice, and it makes me say, ‘Maybe I should now focus on foreign stocks.'”
Cramer recommends that investors lift foreign stock holdings to 25 percent of their portfolios, up from 20 percent normally.
“The U.S. is becoming unfriendly to business, that’s just a fact of life,” Cramer said.
“This country’s getting tougher and tougher to make money in.”
Investors have to look at everything through the prism of what will be the next target for the White House, Cramer says.
“Is oil next for Obama? Why not?” Cramer said.
“The companies make a lot of money. They use U.S. government lands.”
Bottom line: “The White House is back in that mode which thinks the stock market simply isn’t very important,” Cramer says.
Not everyone agrees with him.
Investment guru Laszlo Birinyi expects U.S. stocks to gain 10 percent or more this year amid growing investor confidence and increases in corporate takeovers and share buybacks.
“The surprise is going to be on the upside,” he told Bloomberg.
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