Avalon Advisors Chief Investment Officer Bill Stone believes that 2019 will be a record year for the stock market despite the December crash and subsequent sluggishness that has seen many investors adjust their outlook for the year ahead.

Avalon’s Bill Stone Sees S&P 500 Hitting New Highs in 2019

Speaking to CNBC on Wednesday, Stone stated that stocks, in general, are still very much undervalued, which means that the market can expect some more bullish movement in 2019.

Yesterday, CCN.com reported that National Securities Managing Director and longtime market bull Art Hogan revised his annual outlook for the S&P 500 downward in the light of uncertainty caused by the ongoing U.S.-China trade dispute and the U.S. government shutdown. At the same time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average unexpectedly jumped 145 points on Wednesday, shaking off market fears about Brexit to end the day well over 24,000. It rallied again on Thursday, closing up 162.94 points at 24,370.10.

Market Needs ‘Decent News on the Economy’

According to Stone, whose company manages more than $6.6 billion, the S&P 500 will jump 13 percent in the course of the year and break 3,000 by year’s end, surpassing the present new all-time high of 2,940 set in September 2018. Throughout December’s downturn, Stone remained typically bullish and this has not changed. All of this he said, will not require anything more than some “decent news on the economy.”

Speaking on “Trading Nation,” he said:

There’s no doubt stocks are cheap relative to [the] bond side of the equation. You could have a good market.

In spite of his irrepressible bullishness, Stone also concedes that the factors that contributed to last December’s meltdown have not disappeared, such as The U.S. China trade war, the looming threat of a no-deal Brexit which could threaten the stability of the global financial system, and the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, which is now the longest in history.

According to him, these are all serious risks which must be accounted for, but the main threat factor that might have necessitated a change in investment outlook was the possibility of several interest rate hikes in 2019. Now that the Federal Reserve appears to have shelved this plan, Stone believes that it is safe to assume that the market will rebound significantly this year.

BlackRock’s Zidle Also Bullish on S&P 500

Stone’s position is mirrored by other notable market players including BlackRock Chief Strategist Joseph Zidle, who believes that the government shutdown will not have a significant impact on the stock market in 2019. He predicts that the impact of the shutdown on the estimated 800,000 government employees who have not been aid will be temporary, and the S&P 500 will experience a 15 percent surge in 2019.

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