Experts at Quinnipiac University's G.A.M.E. V Forum in New York Predict, With Caveats, a Continuing Bull Market University

NEW YORK, March 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- During a "Global Markets" keynote panel on the opening day of Quinnipiac University's fifth annual Global Asset Management Education (G.A.M.E.) Forum in Manhattan, a pair of financial experts predicted that the U.S. stock market would continue its recent rise. They noted the Federal Reserve's announcement Wednesday that it would not, at least until its June meeting, raise interest rates, and the subsequent positive response to that on Wall Street.

Abby Joseph Cohen, senior investment strategist and president of the Global Markets Institute at Goldman Sachs, said the U.S. economy, in contrast to countries in Europe and elsewhere, is "on the other side of the financial crisis maelstrom" that began in 2007. "The U.S. has been the leader in recovery, and now in expansion," she said. "The growth cycle could last several more years." America's GDP, she said, is now reaching record levels, with strong job growth and declining unemployment.

Europe worries Cohen because some of its central banks "have pushed interest rates even lower, into negative territory. We've never seen negative interest rates before." She said this "extraordinary" situation means that depositors will pay banks for holding their money. Today, she said, investors want their money in the dollar, which is up 20 percent against the Euro.

Cohen's fellow panelist, Ralph Acampora, senior managing director at Altaira Ltd., said the U.S. is experiencing a secular bull market comparable to the last one, which lasted from 1982 to 2000. And he said, despite the likelihood of some corrections, the market could grow for another five to 10 years.

Acampora said he avoids chasing stocks that have made spectacular gains, such as Home Depot and Boeing. Instead, he said he looks for companies in the middle that "have not fulfilled their upside potential."

The G.A.M.E. V Forum attracted more than 1,200 student participants from 140 colleges and 40 countries to hear 100 speakers over two and a half days.

Quinnipiac is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution located 90 minutes north of New York City and two hours from Boston. The university enrolls 6,500 full-time undergraduate and 2,500 graduate students in 58 undergraduate and more than 20 graduate programs of study in its School of Business and Engineering, School of Communications, School of Education, School of Health Sciences, School of Law, Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine, School of Nursing and College of Arts and Sciences.

SOURCE Quinnipiac University