Business

Pimco sees more job woes and slow going

Bond guru Bill Gross has spoken: he expects stocks and bonds to return less than 5 percent in 2013 as high unemployment persists, he wrote in a Twitter post.

The message from Gross, manager of Pacific Investment Management Co., the world’s biggest bond fund, affirms what he wrote this month in his December investment outlook.

Newport Beach, Calif.-based Gross wrote yesterday in the post: “2013 Fearless Forecasts: 1) Stocks & bonds return less than 5 percent. 2) Unemployment stays at 7.5 percent or higher. 3) Gold goes up.”

US bond markets are scheduled to close early today and remain shut on Jan. 1 for the New Year’s Day holiday. Stock trading in New York will be closed tomorrow.

With globalization, technological and demographic changes restricting growth, investors should seek returns from commodities such as oil and gold, US inflation-protected bonds, high-quality municipal debt and non-dollar emerging market stocks, Gross wrote in his outlook article on Dec. 4, reiterating earlier recommendations.

“While there are growth potions that undoubtedly can reduce the fever, there may be no miracle policy drugs this time around to provide the inevitable cures of prior decades,” Gross wrote in the article, posted on Pimco’s website. “These structural headwinds cannot just be wished away.”

The firm’s Total Return Fund has gained 10.4 percent this year, ranking in the 95th percentile among its peers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.

Pimco, a unit of the Munich-based insurer Allianz SE, managed $1.92 trillion as of Sept. 30.