By Jennifer Ablan
NEW YORK, March 3 (Reuters) - Bob Doll, global chief investment officer for equities at BlackRock Inc, said U.S. equities have 'broken down' and will be under pressure for much longer than previously thought.
'We have broken down and therefore the repair process to create a bottom and to create a foundation sort of has to start over again,' Doll said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday.
'It doesn't mean we have to erase all the work that the markets have done to build a base and repair from the November lows. It just means it does have to go on for longer, in our view.'
BlackRock is one of the world's largest asset managers, with $1.3 trillion under management.
Doll told Reuters in December that the 'bottoming process' began on Oct. 10, when the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index hit 840 with 'incredible volume, horrendous breadth, bad high 'new lows' list,' he said, 'There were some signs of capitulation.'
He also told Reuters in December there was 'some chance' that markets hit their bottom on November 21 -- when the S&P 500 traded at its lowest point in 11 years, Doll said, adding, 'I think we've broken the downtrend and gone sideways.'
But that has hardly been the case.
On Tuesday, the S&P ended below 700 for the first time since October 1996 as persistent uncertainty about the amount of money needed to shore up the financial system overshadowed a hunt for bargains.
'This is obviously marked by horrendous near-term fundamentals,' Doll said, adding 'if you don't want to lose money, you should never be in equities.'
Doll said he originally thought with two chances out of three that the Nov. 21 level of 740 on the S&P 500 'would not be breached' and one-third chance that it would. 'Obviously, the S&P has broken the November low,' Doll said.
Doll said the Obama administration has not really helped the economy and financial markets because the government's stimulus programs won't filter through immediately or have not been detailed to the markets such as the case with the private-public investment fund planned by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
He still is eschewing bank stocks because 'we don't know what the rules are. We don't know which ones are going to look like what going forward. We don't know what the government is going to do or not do.'
(Reporting by Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Diane Craft) Keywords: BLACKROCK DOLL/STOCKS (jennifer.ablan@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 6297; Reuters Messaging: jennifer.ablan.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
NEW YORK, March 3 (Reuters) - Bob Doll, global chief investment officer for equities at BlackRock Inc, said U.S. equities have 'broken down' and will be under pressure for much longer than previously thought.
'We have broken down and therefore the repair process to create a bottom and to create a foundation sort of has to start over again,' Doll said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday.
'It doesn't mean we have to erase all the work that the markets have done to build a base and repair from the November lows. It just means it does have to go on for longer, in our view.'
BlackRock is one of the world's largest asset managers, with $1.3 trillion under management.
Doll told Reuters in December that the 'bottoming process' began on Oct. 10, when the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index hit 840 with 'incredible volume, horrendous breadth, bad high 'new lows' list,' he said, 'There were some signs of capitulation.'
He also told Reuters in December there was 'some chance' that markets hit their bottom on November 21 -- when the S&P 500 traded at its lowest point in 11 years, Doll said, adding, 'I think we've broken the downtrend and gone sideways.'
But that has hardly been the case.
On Tuesday, the S&P ended below 700 for the first time since October 1996 as persistent uncertainty about the amount of money needed to shore up the financial system overshadowed a hunt for bargains.
'This is obviously marked by horrendous near-term fundamentals,' Doll said, adding 'if you don't want to lose money, you should never be in equities.'
Doll said he originally thought with two chances out of three that the Nov. 21 level of 740 on the S&P 500 'would not be breached' and one-third chance that it would. 'Obviously, the S&P has broken the November low,' Doll said.
Doll said the Obama administration has not really helped the economy and financial markets because the government's stimulus programs won't filter through immediately or have not been detailed to the markets such as the case with the private-public investment fund planned by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
He still is eschewing bank stocks because 'we don't know what the rules are. We don't know which ones are going to look like what going forward. We don't know what the government is going to do or not do.'
(Reporting by Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Diane Craft) Keywords: BLACKROCK DOLL/STOCKS (jennifer.ablan@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 6297; Reuters Messaging: jennifer.ablan.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.