‘My world is cash and stocks. I think bonds are the bubble, not stocks.’ Leon Cooperman, Omega Advisors
Billionaire hedge-fund manager Leon Cooperman offered that assessment Wednesday in an interview with CNBC, in which he also argued that stocks are “fundamentally cheap” following a U.S.-led global equity rout last week.
Many investors last week argued that a rapid rise in the 10-year Treasury note yield TMUBMUSD10Y, +1.11% to a more-than-seven-year high above 3.26% helped spark a sharp decline that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.36% lose more than 1,400 points in two days and led the blue-chip gauge and the S&P 500 SPX, -0.03% to their biggest one-day falls since February.
Read: Here’s why stock-market investors suddenly freaked out over rising bond yields
On Tuesday, stocks bounced sharply, with major indexes posting their biggest one-day gains since March but ended flat to slightly lower Wednesday. The S&P 500 remains down 3.6% so far in October, cutting its year-to-date advance to around 5.1%, while the Dow is off 2.8% this month, leaving it with a 4% year-to-date gain.
While market bears argued that the rise in yields and stock-market reaction belied investor fears that a growth slowdown is around the corner, Cooperman, the founder of Omega Advisors, argued that the economy, “if anything, is too strong” and that the conditions “that normally lead to a big decline just aren’t present.”
