If at first you don’t succeed, try try again.
That’s the mantra for Merrill Lynch CEO David Komansky these days as he tries to convince other Wall Streeters to turn bullish.
Early last month, Komansky said the stock market appeared to have bottomed.
Everyone ignored him. In February, two major market averages – the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite – fell further, while the Dow Jones industrial average rose a minuscule 1.9 percent.
So Komansky decided to try again, although this time he hedged his words. In an interview on CNBC, Komansky said both the U.S. economy and the stock markets are “in a bottoming process now.”
But Merrill’s own stock market strategist still doesn’t seem to agree. Richard Bernstein, a Komansky underling who has a lot more influence with investors, is telling clients to keep only 50 percent of their assets in stocks. That makes him one of the least bullish strategists on the Street.
Luckily for Komansky, Merrill’s economist, Bruce Steinberg does agree.
“The manufacturing sector looks like it turned the corner in February,” Steinberg wrote yesterday in a short note to clients, headlined “More Bullish Data.”
In addition to predicting a comeback for stocks, Komansky is also predicting a reemergence of big-time dealmaking. He said there’s a “significant degree of pent-up demand” for mergers, and he expects the number of deals to take off as soon as the markets resume their ascent.