Doll Weighs In On Rate Hikes, And Whether We've Bottomed

After a few rough days, has the stock market bottomed? Bob Doll seems to be leaning towards “yes”.

“There is a chance the bottom’s in. I’m not going to say it’s 100 percent but I can say it’s at least 50 [percent],” Doll said in an interview Tuesday with CNBC. He said that the market’s behavior has been similar to the way it was around the 1987 crash. “That was classic technical selling. You had the panic low on Monday on the huge volume. You got the turn on Tuesday and we closed up nicely on the day. The rally continued, but then we had the test of the low in December,” he said.

Doll also talked about whether the recent turmoil will affect the Federal Reserve’s decision on whether to raise interest rates next month. “It is still in play, and it’s not so much are they going to do it or not as much as [the] confusion around it,” Doll said. “I think if they told us they are going to raise rates or they aren’t going to raise rates, either way would be better than [not knowing] what they’re going to do.” Doll, for one, doesn’t seem to think the Fed will go higher next month. “When the world is messed up like this, they won’t go in September,” he said.