For the seventh time in the past eight weeks, the stock market declined in value in the week ended Friday.
But for all the angst over lingering unemployment, higher commodity prices and rising government deficits, the chief market strategist for Raymond James and Associates remains bullish on the market, at least with the right stock picks.
Jeffrey Saut, managing director for Raymond James, told local investors Friday that continued global population and economic growth are creating more demand for food, energy and technologies for innovative businesses.
Staut, in Chattanooga on Friday to mark the 25th anniversary of Raymond James’ presence in the Scenic City, compared some of today’s market pessissism to the Malthusian projections of the 19th century that claimed population growth would overtake the amount of food that could be raised to sustain it.
“These lines of static analysis ignore the unexpected transformative technologies like advances in farming, vaccines and assembly lines that eventually lead to steep increases in productivity.”
Staut predicts U.S. economic dominance will diminish, shrinking from 24 percent of the global economy today to about 12 percent in 20 years. By comparison, China’s share of the world economy will grow from 9 percent today to 24 percent by 2030 and India’s piece of the global economy will expand from 2 percent to 10 percent in the next two decades.
“There are huge investment opportunities that arise from these shifts,” he said. “That’s why I remain bullish,” he said, predicting the U.S. economy will grow at a better-than-expected 3 percent rate during the second half of 2011.
Taut helps advise financial advisers in more than 400 offices of Raymond James, including the 14 financial advisers for the firm in Chattanooga and four others at the East Brainerd office.
“There are still opportunities in this market and we want to offer our clients help with their whole financial package to make the right investments,” said Diane Guffey, senior vice president and branch manager for the Chattanooga office of Raymond James.