Marc Faber Says Government Actions Will Boost Stocks (Update1)
By Eric Martin and Deirdre Bolton
March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Government spending will spur gains in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index after it fell 56 percent from an October 2007 record, investor Marc Faber said.
“Equities could rally between here and the end of April,” Faber said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “The government’s efforts will fail to boost economic activity. They can boost stocks. Stocks have adjusted meaningfully.”
Faber said that although the S&P 500 may drop 27 percent to below 500 before the bear market ends, investors will make money over the next 10 years.
Congress last month enacted President Barack Obama’s $787 billion package of tax cuts and spending on roads, bridges and public buildings. His 2010 budget indicated the government may devote another $750 billion to a financial rescue after an initial $700 billion.
The S&P 500 dropped 56 percent from an Oct. 9, 2007, record, dragged down by $1.2 trillion in losses at financial firms worldwide from the collapse of the subprime mortgage market. The benchmark for American equities lost 38 percent last year, its biggest annual decline since 1937.
Industrial commodities are more attractive than gold, Faber said, after bullion rallied 6.3 percent this year, compared with a 9.1 percent decline for the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 materials.
Faber, the publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report, advised buying gold at the start of its eight-year rally, when it traded for less than $300 an ounce. The metal topped $1,000 last year and traded at $932.78 an ounce today. He also told investors to bail out of U.S. stocks a week before the so-called Black Monday crash in 1987, according to his Web site.
To contact the reporters on this story: Eric Martin in New York at emartin21@bloomberg.net; Deirdre Bolton in New York at dbolton@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: March 9, 2009 09:25 EDT |
