After a strong start to the year, stocks seem to have cooled off recently. But according to investing legend Ken Fisher, this is no time to turn bearish.
During a discussion on Fox Business, the billionaire founder of Fisher Investments shared his insights on why the recent dip in the stock market is not a significant worry.
“It is a bull market,” he stated. “The reality is that we've been, for the last three weeks, more or less straight off the top and there's your legendary saying that bull markets die with a whimper not with bang, traditional bear markets that are then accompanied by recession of a slow, steady start at the beginning, not a steep plunge.”
Fisher describes the recent pullback as “a steep plunge off the top.” Instead of signaling the beginning of a bear market, he views it as “an attempt at a correction.”
One of Fisher's points is that some Americans are overly focused on domestic markets; he recommends expanding their view internationally. This broader perspective can challenge two beliefs that have led people to adopt a bearish outlook.
What pessimists are missing
The first belief is about tech.
“This concept that so many people have wrongly had that the market was only about the “Magnificent Seven” or the “Fab Four” or whatever you want, is just wrong when you look at how many countries around the world that have nothing to do with tech have had all time global highs this year,” Fisher said.
The tech sector has indeed been a focus for many investors, particularly due to the exceptional performance of a group of mega-cap tech giants last year nicknamed the “Magnificent Seven.” This elite group includes Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOGL), Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA).
More recently, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Nvidia have continued to perform strongly, leading strategists to dub them the "Fabulous Four."
The second belief Fisher challenged was the prevailing concern about inflation.
He explained, “There's been this fixation on the Fed and inflation and interest rates, but the reality is when you look overseas, Europe in particular, you see that their inflation, which went up higher faster as a rate, has actually fallen faster and is now lower than in America.”
Inflation in the European Union has consistently declined since reaching a peak of 11.5% in October 2022. In March 2024, the EU’s annual inflation rate was 2.6%, down from 2.8% in February.
“If you think about inflation, it always ends up getting averaged out around the world, and the pessimism in America about America is missing the optimism from overseas,” Fisher added.
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Enjoy the ride?
Stocks are volatile, and even bull markets can experience significant pullbacks. But according to Fisher, such volatility should not diminish the enjoyment of this market — especially considering what lies ahead.
“Presidential election years are overwhelmingly bullish,” he stated. “Presidential election years that follow second years of a president's term that were down since the bottom of the Great Depression in 1932 have always been positive — up an average of 15.7%.”
Stocks have already made strides in this election year. The Dow has risen 2% year to date, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite have both climbed over 6%.
“It’s a bull market, just enjoy it — even though stocks are volatile time to time,” Fisher remarked.
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Jing is an investment reporter for MoneyWise. He is an avid advocate of investing for passive income. Despite the ups and downs he’s been through with the markets, Jing believes that you can generate a steadily increasing income stream by investing in high quality companies.
