Le previsioni per il 2005 di inizio anno dei guru di Barron's. - gz
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By: GZ on Domenica 16 Gennaio 2005 20:53
Le previsioni per il 2005 di inizio anno dei guru di Barron's.
Interessante l'idea che visto che nel 2003 e 2004 tutti i mercati, azioni, obbligazioni e materie prime e case sono saliti e il dollaro sceso nel 2005 succederà il contrario. E conviene vendere tutto e comprare dollari
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MONDAY, JANUARY 17, 2005
Against The Wind
Our pros see modest gains for the market, despite higher rates and inflation
By LAUREN R. RUBLIN
ARCHIE MacALLASTER
Chairman, MacAllaster
Pitfield MacKay, N.Y.
JOHN NEFF
Retired portfolio manager, Vanguard Windsor Fund and Gemini II; managing partner (retired), Wellington Management, Radnor, Pa.
MERYL WITMER
General partner, Eagle Capital Partners, N.Y.
MARIO GABELLI
Chairman, Gabelli
Asset Management,
Rye, N.Y.
ABBY JOSEPH COHEN
Chief U.S. Portfolio Strategist, Goldman
Sachs, N.Y.
OSCAR SCHAFER
Managing partner, O.S.S. Capital Management, N.Y.
FELIX ZULAUF
Founding partner and
president, Zulauf
Asset Management, Zug, Switzerland.
SCOTT BLACK
Founder and president, Delphi Management;
portfolio manager, Delphi Value Fund,
Boston, Mass.
ART SAMBERG
Chairman and CEO, Pequot Capital Management,
Westport, Conn.
MARC FABER
Managing director, Marc Faber Ltd., Hong Kong.
FRED HICKEY
Editor, The High-Tech
Strategist, Nashua, N.H.
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.........Q: OK. Fred, do you have a market forecast?
Hickey: Sure. The secular bear market that began in 2000 is going to resume. It was postponed or delayed in its full effect for the same reason the economy held up: massive intervention. The market will be down for the year.
Q: Modestly or seriously?
Hickey: It could be down seriously. The effect of last year's interest-rate hikes will be felt this year. Higher oil prices will hurt earnings, and many industries continue to suffer from overcapacity. Worst of all, stock prices are too high. After accounting for stock options, eBay's price-earnings multiple will go to 120 from 100. Nasdaq stocks have P/Es of 35 to 40, which are not sustainable long-term, especially given today's growth rates. The market is heading lower, though how fast it falls is hard to say. This year I see 9000 on the Dow and 1500 on the Nasdaq.
Q: That's something different. Meryl?
Witmer: There aren't a lot of inexpensive stocks in the U.S. The market has become efficient. People are coming out of business school and starting hedge funds, and a lot of very smart people are running around looking for good ideas. Occasionally we find a cheap stock, but they tend to trade up quickly. Also, insiders are selling, and they know what's going on. I see the market flat to down 5% for the year.
Q: You didn't have much trouble finding good stocks last year.
Witmer: We found some, but we also had a good amount of cash. And we had to travel far afield from the U.S. to find values.
Q: What say you, Oscar?
Schafer: No major asset class is cheap, but the alternative is cash. It will be a good year for stock pickers but the market will be up or down 5%.
Gabelli: Something's going to go wrong that will cause stocks to fall because the past eight weeks have been so good. Maybe some hedge-fund guy blows up. By the end of the year, however, the market will be up 5%, at around 11,000. Next year is steady as she goes, particularly with a unified administration. The Bush team will put certain items on the agenda that will help the outlook for '06.
Q: What do you think, Bill?
Gross: Stock prices and stock returns are a function of two things. One is the current dividend yield and the other is corporate profits, which in turn is a function of nominal GDP. If you piece together a 1.5% dividend yield and 5% nominal GDP, the expectation for stocks should be in the 6% to 6.5% range. In a year in which there are contractionary fiscal and monetary forces and currency issues, you'd expect returns to be a little less. Forecasting stock prices is really trying to forecast investor optimism, which at some point is influenced by these other forces and political events. Stocks, like bonds, are going to have a cool year.
Q: Marc, please chime in.
Faber: In 2004 the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 4.51% in euros. The S&P 500 was up 8.99% in dollars, but just 0.9% in euros. What will the U.S. do this year in euros? That is the question. If the dollar strengthens, as I believe, U.S. stocks will go down. If the Fed decides to reverse itself and ease again, the market might rise in dollar terms but will fall against hard currencies. My strategy is to short some U.S. stocks and be long other markets in the world. Last year Middle Eastern and some African markets, even Asia and Japan, had fantastic performances. The Nikkei was up 21% in euros. Indonesia was up 21%. Thailand didn't perform well, but the other Asian markets did.
All asset prices are expensive. Bonds are not a great value, nor are industrial commodities. A friend of mine in Switzerland just sold a house for $25 million that was bought for $1 million or less in the 1970s. That reflects a loss of the purchasing power of money. Still, Asia has undervalued currencies, undervalued asset prices and relatively low stock prices compared with the U.S. I would be long Asia and short the U.S.
Witmer: Even a house in the south of Spain is a lot more expensive than a house in Boca Raton, according to some European CEOs. They're all buying in Boca Raton.
Q: John, you've been quiet.
Neff: If you combine 8% stock returns with a 2% yield, you get a total return of 10%. The market is on track to achieve that.
Samberg: Stocks could be up zero to 5% this year, with 6% to 7% profit growth. There's a little bit of a [price-earnings] multiple contraction because of rising interest rates. Unlike Mario, I think the problem is next year. When the Fed chairman changes [Alan Greenspan's term expires in January 2006], there will be questions about the direction of policy.
Also, the problem is finding stocks. Big stocks have underperformed for good reason. The drug stocks are under attack, the large financials are uninteresting. Large technology companies played the PC [personal computer] game, and they are still expensive. Small-caps have outperformed for the past two years, which may be why Meryl and Oscar are having more difficulty finding what to buy. You're going to have to go offshore more and more. With credit spreads narrowing and volatility low and returns on all asset classes converging, it's only a matter of time before something happens. With expectations of zero to 5% returns, you'll have to be extremely careful this year.
Cohen: Scott wants in.
Q: By all means, join us.
Black: The S&P 500 closed Friday [Jan. 7] at 1186.19. We've got earnings of $70.65 for 2005. The market is trading for 16.8 times earnings, which by historical standards is not overpriced. The market will be up around 5% or 6% on the year. We expect only a modest increase in interest rates at the 10-year-bond level. Even though we have staggering amounts of debt, the U.S. will continue to attract the capital to close the deficit. So I'm modestly bullish. I don't see an implosion of stock prices because there aren't a lot of alternatives. It's not as if interest rates are going to go up 8.5% or 9%, with multiples contracting dramatically.
Q: Felix?
Zulauf: Economic momentum will moderate during the year. The central bank will keep squeezing until there is some sort of accident in the market. My hunch is it's going to be in the first half, though technology will be down all year. Once asset prices fall, the Fed will fix things. I have no clue as to where the market will end the year, but it probably won't be far from current prices. In between, however, there will be a big selloff.