Omega Advisors’ Leon Cooperman said the bull market isn’t in its early innings, but he also thinks the conditions that would normally signal a significant market decline aren’t present.
Cooperman told CNBC’s “Halftime Report” on Wednesday that recent economic data looks fine and that the market is “reasonably, fully valued.”
The billionaire hedge fund manager also said he expects “rightly or wrongly that you’re going to have capital losses in bonds over the next couple years.” Cooperman said, however, that this will happen very slowly as the Federal Reserve will act very slowly on its plan to gradually raise its benchmark interest rate.
While Cooperman said his hedge fund, which manages $3.6 billion in assets as of March 31, missed the rally in the banks, he believes those stocks are like the market and are reasonably fully priced.
“We can’t sit here and make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. The market has had a big move and the conditions for a big decline aren’t present — I want to make that very clear. I think the market will end the year modestly higher than it is now,” he said.
Cooperman said it seems like the market rally since Donald Trump’s electoral win is a result of participants believing that the government is now “run by a bunch of capitalists.” While some may dislike some aspects of this administration, Cooperman said many people, including himself, like his economic ideas.
The head of Omega Advisors said, however, that there are “plenty of risks out there,” including protectionism, exchange rates, high levels of corporate debt, unsustainable deficits and political uncertainty.
One concern Cooperman had is whether the government can push a tax package through Congress on a “timely basis.”
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