“Bond King” Bill Gross expressed a bearish view of the stock market, and “Oracle of Omaha” Warren Buffett also became less optimistic.
in Post to X Gross said early Friday that there were very few “bullish stocks,” pointing to pipeline master limited partnerships, banks and financials in general.
“Investors should stop talking about buying low and start thinking about selling on the rise,” the PIMCO co-founder added.
The tweet came before stocks plummeted on Friday morning following a weak jobs report, but then plummeted on Thursday after a market reversal following an unexpectedly weak Institute for Supply Management manufacturing index.
On Saturday, Berkshire Hathaway’s second-quarter earnings report revealed that Buffett’s conglomerate sold a net $75.5 billion worth of stock, nearly cutting its Apple stake in half.
The trade came before the recent stock market crash, which had seen the S&P 500 regularly hit new record highs.
“The conclusion would be that this is yet another sell signal,” Edward Jones analyst Jim Shanahan told Bloomberg. “This was a much higher level of selling activity than we would have expected.”
Buffett’s selling has been so aggressive that he has not ruled out selling Berkshire’s remaining stake in Apple, which he estimates at about 400 million shares. “I think zero is even possible now.”
His stock selling spree has continued into the third quarter, with Berkshire selling nearly $4 billion of Bank of America stock in the past few weeks.
CFRA Research Analyst Cathy Seifert He told the Associated Press Berkshire’s sale of Apple shares looks like responsible portfolio management, given that the iPhone maker has grown to make up a large portion of Buffett’s holdings.
This follows an earlier move to trim that part of the portfolio: Berkshire announced in May that it was selling 100 million shares of Apple, representing 13% of its holding at the time.
Still, Seifert acknowledged that Buffett may be preparing for a downturn, saying, “This company is prepared for a worsening economic situation.”
But other Wall Street investors remain bullish. Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Advisors, said in a note on Friday that while the jobs report confirms an economic slowdown, it’s not a sign the U.S. is heading into a recession.
He reiterated his target price for the S&P 500 at 6,000, implying a 12% upside from the previous day’s close, and predicted stocks would rise toward the end of the year as the election results become clearer and the economy continues to show modest growth.
