Finance professor Jeremy Siegel predicts that stocks could surge from 5 percent and 15 percent in what could be "quite a good year" for markets.
The Wharton School finance professor told CNBC that he isn’t worried about the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates. He also doesn’t expect a recession anytime soon, and based on current valuations this is a "cheap market."
"There's been a wobble here and that is what the market feels," Siegel told CNBC.
"We'll be wobbling to a slowdown but not a recession," he said.
"We went from a rosy view to now, 'Oh my God, there's going to be a recession,'" Siegel said. "The truth will be somewhere in between, and that leaves the stock market very attractive now."
To be sure, Wall Street struggled for direction after stumbling out of the starting gate on Wednesday as investor fears over a global economic slowdown dampened the spirit of bargain hunters on the first trading day of the new year, Reuters explained.
The session got off to a rocky start after separate reports showed a deceleration in factory activity in China and the euro zone, indicating that the ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China was taking a toll on global manufacturing.
As 2019 gets under way and with the worst year for U.S. stocks in a decade in the rear-view mirror, some analysts see a “January effect” attracting investors to the table.
“We had a lousy quarter and the negative returns for the year,” said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama. “However, we could see a more friendly Fed than what we had last year and we could see some movement on the trade talks.”
“Stocks are cheap and investors are looking to put money to work in the new year,” Hellwig added.
For his part, President Donald Trump on Wednesday played down the stock market’s drop at the end of 2018, calling it a “glitch” and saying the market will again go up once various trade deals are settled, Reuters reported.
Trump, speaking to reporters at a cabinet meeting, sounded upbeat about negotiations to reach a trade deal with China, saying they are coming along very well.
The United States and China are about one month into a 90-day pause in implementing tariffs and other measures in a trade war that dominated much of 2018, as they work on hammering out a deal.
U.S. trade deals with Canada and Mexico also await congressional approval.
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