Bear Leuthold Sees Stocks Rising Sharply

By Dan Weil

Steve Leuthold, a star money manager who earned big money shorting stocks last year, is now a raging bull.

In April, he predicted the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index would reach 1,100 by year-end, a 22 percent gain from Wednesday’s close. Now he thinks the index can reach that level sooner.

“When I said 1,100, people thought I was smoking something,” Leuthold told Bloomberg TV.

“Now it seems like a much more rational thing, and we are seeing many … people that have said, ‘Hey, I’m going to wait until next year when the economy is improving,’ that are now saying, ‘Uh oh, I think we maybe better move before that.’”

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