Birinyi Says Stocks Rally Signals Economic Rebound

(Bloomberg) -- The rally that pushed the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to the highest level since October is signaling the rebound in the economy will be stronger than most forecasters expect, investor Laszlo Birinyi said.“The markets are suggesting that the economy has turned the corner and is going to do a lot better than most people anticipate,” Birinyi, the founder of Westport, Connecticut- based research and money-management firm Birinyi Associates Inc., said today in an interview broadcast on Bloomberg Radio and Television. “I’m still very optimistic.”

Birinyi predicted on May 20 that the S&P 500 will climb to a record 1,700 in the next two or three years, a 66 percent gain from its current level. The index has rallied 14 percent since he made that forecast. The benchmark index for U.S. stocks may rise another 5.9 percent to 1,087 within the next three months “if it continues to progress at the rate it’s been progressing,” Biryini said.

Birinyi, who spent a decade on the trading desk at Salomon Brothers Inc. and is known for pioneering money-flow analysis, said he bought General Electric Co. shares and recommended Google Inc., Apple Inc., as well as health-care and retail stocks. The S&P 500 has rallied 52 percent from a 12-year low on March 9 as 76 percent of companies in the benchmark reported better-than-estimated second-quarter results and economic reports showed improvement.