The Flinchum File

Thoughtful Economic Analysis and Existential Opinions
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Take A Bow , Dr. Siegel

Undoubtedly, my all-time favorite professor at Wharton was Dr. Jeremy Siegel.  Last week on CNBC, he was honored for his stock market prediction last year that the S&P 500 would end the year at 1,850.  He was wrong!  It was only 1,848.  Of course, that was closer than anybody else, and he deserved the honor.

I just read his latest prediction.  Looking at the Dow instead of the S&P this year, he thinks the fair value of the stock market is 18,000 compared to about 16,425 now.  That means he expects another 9.6% market appreciation before becoming fully valued.  He also points out that markets “rarely stop at fair value” and will normally go higher before falling back to fair value.

In other words, this brilliant, self-effacing professor thinks it is still a good time to invest more into the market.  However, as fond as I am of Dr. Siegel, he is known as a “perma-bull” who always sees a glass as half-full and normally expects a bull market.  Nonetheless, with the positive economic reports over the last few months, I expect he will probably be correct this year . . . again!