The stock market may hit some bumps ahead but the secular bull market isn’t ending anytime soon, the chief investment strategist at Raymond James told CNBC on Friday.
U.S. stocks were on pace for a sixth straight day of gains on Friday after last week’s massive sell-off.
“This market’s got years left in it on the upside,” Wall Street veteran Jeffrey Saut said in an interview with “Power Lunch.”
History shows that secular bull markets tend to last about 14 years, he said. Saut believes the current bull market started in October 2008. That’s about five months ahead of the March 2009 bottom for the Dow and S&P 500, which is considered by many to be when it began.
Saut’s recent predictions have been on the money. In January, he said his models were telegraphing “downside vulnerability” in February. The sell-off began Feb. 2 after a stronger-than-expected jobs report sent interest rates higher.
Then on Feb. 6, when the market reversed course and headed higher, Saut told CNBC he thought it was heading back down for a “double bottom” before it was “off to the races again.” On Feb. 7 the market shot lower again, with the S&P 500 having its biggest reversal since February 2016.
For now, he’s anticipating some technical resistance for the market.
“I’d be a little cautious on a trading basis but longer term we’re still in a secular bull market,” said Saut, who’s worked in finance for about 50 years.
He’s also not overly concerned about the rise in interest rates, noting that they will go up at a glacial pace.
“You can get actually multiple expansions despite an increase in interest rates,” Saut said.
Steve Chiavarone, portfolio manager at Federated Investors, doesn’t see a real problem for stocks until interest rates get to the 3.5 to 4 percent range.
“The market got a full-turn cheaper just because of the pickup in earnings expectations this year. We think for long-term investors you want to be in a buy-the-dips not sell-the-rally mode,” he told “Power Lunch.”
— CNBC’s Kellie Ell and Matthew Belvedere contributed to this report.
