Sunday September 6, 12:46 pm Eastern Time
Goldman's Cohen sees stocks rising
WASHINGTON, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs & Co. stock strategist Abby Joseph Cohen, a longtime bull, on Sunday reiterated that she expects stock prices to rise.
''We think from these levels the stock market direction is up over the next few months,'' she said on the CBS television program ''Face the Nation.''
''The only way that the current level of the stock market makes sense is if we indeed are going into a mild recession in the United States and we don't see that this year or next,'' she said.
Despite tumbling stock prices, Cohen has previously held to her earlier year-end price targets that would be put the Dow Jones industrial average at 9,300.
The Dow closed on Friday at 7,640, 18.4 percent below the all-time high of 9,368 set July 17. The benchmark index fell 411 points for the week after losing 482 points the previous week.
Cohen said that although market interest rates have already been falling, any decision by the Federal Reserve to reduce interest rates would be positive. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan on Friday hinted that the Fed might cut interest rates.
''I think if the Fed moved further (to lower official rates) ... it would be viewed in a favorable way,'' Cohen said.
She said investors have been too preoccupied by Russia's economic woes, since Russia accounts for less than 1 percent of U.S. trade.
Selling of stocks by institutions that had invested in Russia using borrowed funds has added to recent pressure on equities, Cohen said. |
