Stock prices have peaked for 2009 and may drop by as much as 20 percent as investors buy cheap dollars, says investment guru Marc Faber, author of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report.

The dollar, says Faber, is oversold, and investors will ditch equities and snap up greenbacks.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we’d seen the peak of the market for this year because the economic news isn’t going to improve very much,” Faber told Bloomberg.

“The correction in the market has been overdue for quite some time.”

While officials have been saying recently that the United States is emerging from its recession, credit markets still remain tight and unemployment figures are still high.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said recently that a government program designed to boost lending to families and businesses will be extended as other stimulus programs wind down.

“An ongoing need still clearly exists” for the program, Bernanke said, according to the Associated Press.

The so-called Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, could arrange up to $1 trillion in lending for households and businesses.

TALF was due to expire at the end of 2009 but has been extended into 2010.