Renowned bear says market will rise 30% this year


Steve Leuthold earned an astounding 74% return for investors in his Grizzly Short Fund last year betting, as the name would suggest, that stocks were in for a grizzly beating -- which they were.

But now Leuthold has turned bullish, and is predicting that the S&P 500 will hit 1,100 this year -- which would represent an increase of more than 30% from the the current price.

"This market was about as cheap as I've seen in my 45 years in this business," he told Bloomberg. "We're probably going to see the economy start turning upward, not now but toward the end of the year. The market is a lead economic indicator, so the time clock is about right for the market to turn up"

Leuthold also warned about the dangers of the excess liquidity that the Federal Reserve has flushed into the system, and expressed concern that it could lead to inflation if it isn't "mopped up" quickly.

The problem, of course, is that efforts to mop up liquidity right now would very likely hurt prospects for a quick, liquidity-fueled economic turnaround. Even if fighting off the ravages of inflation is the right thing to do long-term -- which most would agree it is -- it's probably not a politically expedient move right now given all the concerns about the availability of credit and job losses.

But for investors, it's hard not to take some comfort in Leuthold's predictions. He's pretty much the opposite of a perma-bear, and is one of the few investors who has come out of this mess with their credibility stronger rather than weaker.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-89.2312,801.23
NASDAQ-23.352,903.88
S&P 500-9.311,342.64

Last updated: February 13, 2012: 07:08 AM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

18.875-0.255(-1.33)

Alcoa

10.29-0.35(-3.29)

Apple Inc

493.42+0.25(+0.05)

Google Inc 'A'

605.91-5.55(-0.91)

Bank of America

8.07-0.11(-1.34)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.90-0.06(-0.10)

Exxon Mobil Corp

83.80-1.08(-1.27)

Ford

12.44-0.25(-1.97)

Citigroup

32.925-0.735(-2.18)

IBM

192.42-0.71(-0.37)

Yahoo

16.14+0.14(+0.88)

Starbucks

48.82-0.38(-0.77)

Microsoft

30.495-0.275(-0.89)

Home Depot

45.33+0.06(+0.13)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

BioHealth Investor Headlines

WalletPop Headlines

DailyFinance BlackBerry App

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

BioHealth Investor Headlines

Page Loaded in 1329134883787 ms.