Ultra Bearish Marc Faber Says Current Gold Price ‘Low’, Investors Must Prepare for the Worst as ‘It Will Come to War’
Business Intelligence Middle East
Marc Faber the Swiss fund manager and Gloom Boom & Doom editor said markets are "extremely oversold" and a "snap-back" rally – 50 points on the S&P – could start as early as today.
However, he sees no new highs for the year, and expects markets to drift lower to a mid-term target of 1,050-1,100 for the S&P by October-November of this year.
In one of his gloomiest predictions, he tells investors to prepare for the worst by buying precious metals on dips.
Markets oversold
Speaking in a phone interview from Zurich with CNBC this morning, Faber said: "The market has experienced huge technical damage. Near term as of today, all markets are extremely oversold, so a rebound will happen.
"The damage technically is so great that the rebound, no matter if QE3 happens right here, is unlikely to lift the markets above the May 2 high on the S&P at 1,370," he added.
Faber has set a mid-term target of 1,050-1,100 on the S&P 500 by October-November of this year. After, "we will have to see if QE3-QE4 will come and whether markets will stabilize."
In general, the renowned investor said he would use rebounds as selling opportunities.
The S&P 500 Index slumped 60.27 points, or 4.8% yesterday, to 1,200.07. The percentage drop was the biggest retreat since February 2009, as concerns the global economy is weakening prompted a global rout.
An index of global stocks entered a so-called correction yesterday, falling more than 10% from this year’s high. The seven-day sell-off has wiped out more than US$4.4 trillion from market values worldwide, according to Bloomberg News.
"The world has gone mad," Faber told Susan Li and John Dawson on Bloomberg Television’s "On the Move Asia," earlier this morning.
"Investors don’t understand that markets are volatile and that they have to be prepared to see stocks drop 30% annually and then rallying 20% and then dropping again. That’s going to be the pattern, and anyone who cannot live with that shouldn’t be buying anything".
Faber, who predicted the stock market crash in 1987 and turned bearish shortly before the 2007-2009 bear market, expects a snap-back rally – about 50 points on the S&P- as early as today or Monday.
QE3 and Treasuries
"I can already smell QE3. Now we’ll see if Mr. Bernanke is a true money printer or an amateur money printer," he said.
"If he is a true money printer, he’s going to start printing soon, markets will rally but not to new highs," he told Bloomberg.
"The Treasury market is telling you that the economy is in recession," Faber said in an earlier interview this week.
"So if the bond market is telling you that the economies of the Western world are weakening, but at the same time the stock market is still relatively high, I think the stock market is vulnerable."
"I think Treasuries are still perceived as a safe haven because everyone knows the US has an endless ability to print money, Faber told CNBC today, adding that he US will not default, instead it "will pay the interest in a worthless currency."
He believes that some companies will start to disappoint in the second half of this year and "we might have liquidity problems in the market in terms of financing."
Ultra bearish – It will come to war
Speaking to CNBC on Tuesday, Faber said there is a case for being "ultra bearish about everything".
Explaining his stance, he said: "I see that 10 years ago, a huge shift in economic power began from the Western World – the US and Western Europe – to Asia and emerging economies."
"This shift in the balance of economic power to emerging economies is accompanied by a shift in the political and military power, and that…, the West will not just sit and do nothing about it."
"The Libya expedition is the first shot," he argued.
"I think the West would want to control China by controlling the oil supplies from the Middle East, and then it will come to war," he predicted.
In war time the one thing you don’t want to own is government bonds, he said. "I would prepare for the worst. In a worst case scenario investors are better off in precious metals," he stressed.
