Wells Capital Management’s Jim Paulsen says he sees continued gains in job creation spurring a rebound in confidence that should lift many parts of the economy. Paulsen tells Bloomberg that for the first time in this recovery, we’re seeing job creation at a pace that should steadily decrease the unemployment rate. And that, he says, should result in a broadening of confidence that could lift everything from the U.S. consumer to the housing industry. He says equity valuations and Treasury yields have been kept low because of “great fear about external shocks like Europe”, which has created opportunities for investors. He sees Europe’s debt crisis morphing from something that is viewed as a potential catastrophe to something that is more of a chronic, less dramatic issue, and he’s particularly high on emerging market stocks and U.S. manufacturing and industry stocks.

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