Paul Tudor Jones: Stocks Will End Year Higher

Hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones thinks the Federal Reserve is finished raising interest rates in its fight against inflation and that stocks will end the year higher, he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Monday.

“Equity prices … I think they’re going to continue to go up this year,” the billionaire said. “I’m not rampantly bullish because I think it’ll be a slow grind.”

As for the Fed having raised interest rates 10 times since March 2022 to a fed funds rate in a range of 5% to 5.25%, “I definitely think they’re done,” Tudor Jones said. “They could probably declare victory now because if you look at CPI, it’s been declining 12 straight months. That’s never happened before in history.”

The consumer price index hit a peak of 9.1% in June 2022 and eased to 4.9% in April, with wholesale prices now at 2.3%.

Tudor Jones says the market is similar to mid-2006, when stocks moved up for a year after the Fed discontinued tightening monetary policy.

The longtime investor, who gained notoriety after predicting and profiting from the crash of 1987 and is estimated to have a net worth of $7.3 billion, likes stock valuations at 19 and says now is a good time, while the U.S. debt ceiling is causing such political uncertainty, to buy stocks.

Tudor Jones also believes mergers and acquisitions will pick up since there’s plenty of dry powder:

“We have no IPOs, no calendar, no secondaries, valuations are at 19 but nobody’s rushing to offer—so clearly, something is going on internally in the stock market. From a flow standpoint, that’s constructive.”