Global turmoil will continue to roil equities markets but investors should cherry pick good buys out there, as many stocks will prove to be better investments than U.S. government debt, say a famous market bear and a famous market bull.
Marc Faber, the noted bear and author of the Gloom Boom & Doom report, and Jeremy Siegel, Wharton School finance professor and perennial bull, agree that with yields on U.S. Treasury bonds at rock-bottom levels, dividend-paying stocks are better bets despite market volatility.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note has dipped below 1.5 percent, signaling that investors are willing to stash their cash in an investment that returns less than inflation rates in exchange for stability.
Editor's Note: Startling Proof of the End of America’s Middle Class. Details in the Video
"Everything looks bad at the present time and people are relatively bearish. At the same time, you have the 10-year note at less than 1.5 percent and you have stocks like Johnson & Johnson yielding almost 4 percent," Faber tells CNBC.
"I'm not saying Johnson & Johnson won't go down with the rest of the market, but if you have a time horizon of 10 years, I believe you're going to make more money in Johnson & Johnson than you will in U.S. government bonds," Faber adds.
Siegel agrees.
"This is the first time in 60 years that dividend yields on the market exceed long-term interest rates. It's the first time in 60 years when you don't need gains in stocks, that you don't need higher returns than gains in bonds," Siegel also tells CNBC.
"You don't have to worry so much about the day-to-day volatility if the corporation, if the firm has good coverage on its dividend, because it's going to continue to pay."
A cooling global economy is sending oil prices falling, which will benefit many companies and the U.S. economy as well, Siegel adds.
"Slow growth, no recession, earnings flat but dividends well-covered — I think it's still a very, very good story for stocks," Siegel adds.
Fears are growing that Greece will exit the eurozone and the larger Spain may follow suit as well, which is fueling demand for Treasury bonds and notes and pushing yields down, especially considering the level of uncertainty surrounding the fate of the economy.
The yield on a bond falls when prices rise.
"It seems inevitable the euro has got to break up, it's just how long can they drag it out and what are the ramifications," says Nathan Snyder, portfolio manager at Snow Capital Management in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, Reuters reports.
"So much of this is unwritten it is hard to put any sort of odds on how this plays out," he added.
Editor's Note: Startling Proof of the End of America’s Middle Class. Details in the Video
© 2025 Newsmax Finance. All rights reserved.