Back To The 90s? Get Ready For Crises Within A Bull, Sonders Says

Charles Schwab’s Liz Ann Sonders says she expects the bull market to roll on, but she wouldn’t be surprised to see some major speed bumps along the way.

Speaking at the Inside ETFs conference, Sonders said she wouldn’t be surprised if, within this bull market, we started to see financial crises rear their heads in areas like commodities and emerging markets, as was the case in the 1990s, Financial Advisor reports. She also said that “this might be the year Main Street feels better than Wall Street.”

Investment News reported, meanwhile, that Sonders said there “is a slightly elevated risk of a 10% correction this year”. But she doesn’t think the bull is done. “I have some short-term concerns, but I personally think the bull market we’re in now will be the best is our lifetime,” she said, noting that U.S. businesses “are sitting on a huge hoard of cash, which is at a level not seen since World War II” while inflation remains low. “The money is not multiplying and that has held inflation in check, but it has also kept economic growth low,” she said. “You don’t get an inflation problem when you have no velocity of money, but if we start to see velocity pick up, then I think we could start to change the thinking around future [Federal Reserve] policy.”

Sonders also says that valuations aren’t a concern yet, and that profit margins shouldn’t be a problem. “We know that profit margins are at or near all-time highs,” she said. “But unless you’re rolling over into a crash, it has not been historically a problem for the market coming off all-time highs in profit margins.”