‘This is a buying opportunity:’ Blackstone predicts 15% market surge

Blackstone is telling investors not to give up on 2019, and perhaps they’re starting to listen.

Its investment strategist, Joseph Zidle, is optimistic stocks will rebound this year, blaming the market’s wild swings on misguided, negative sentiment.

“This is a buying opportunity. We see the market, the S&P 500, up 15 percent in 2019,” he said Thursday on CNBC’s “Futures Now.” “This is just not a recessionary environment.”

And, Wall Street may be getting the message.

On Friday, the Dow jumped 746.94 points or 3.3 percent, to close the week at 23,433.16. The S&P 500 also soared more than 3 percent to 2,531.94. The rally followed a better-than-expected December jobs report and comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell indicating a more dovish tone.

Zidle has been advising clients to put money to work over the past several weeks as volatility gripped the market — singling out cyclical groups such as materials, industrials, technology and energy.

“They’re the most beaten down,” he said. “I think oil prices find a bottom, and I don’t think the conditions are nearly as dire as people are making them out to be.”

Zidle, who has called himself a “stubborn bull,” believes significant progress on the trade war will ultimately revive bullish momentum this year for good.

“The trade war is going to get resolved. We think we see a deal in the first quarter,” Zidle said. “China and the U.S. have an incentive to get a deal done.”