Fisher Sees 2012 Ending with Strong Gains

In a preview of his firm’s third-quarter outlook, Kenneth Fisher and Fisher Investments’ Investment Policy Committee say they expect stock returns for the full 2012 year to be “strongly positive”, led by large-cap growth stocks.

“Most investors remain hyper-focused on a few rehashed macroeconomic issues while largely ignoring overall positive fundamentals,” Fisher and his colleagues write in the preview, which Investors.com published. “Globally, corporations are very healthy. Earnings continue to beat expectations by a wide margin, coupled with strong top-line sales growth. Firms are also flush with cash with low debt levels — fuel for strong future demand. US, global, developed world and Emerging Markets GDP continues to notch new highs. What’s more, by most measures, stocks remain exceptionally cheap.” They also say that sentiment remains quite “dour”, and that even slight increases in optimism should drive stocks higher.

The group also says that negatives do exist, “but, in our view, are broadly known and lack much power to counter underappreciated positives (as has been the case throughout this bull market).” They talk about the outlook for the presidential election, and what sort of impact the results of the November elections could have on stocks. And they talk about China’s economy, and the Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act, and their potential impacts on the market.