The U.S. bull market remains intact despite recent volatility and pull-backs, according to Truist Wealth chief investment officer Keith Lerner.
This assessment comes as investors weigh whether recent market dips signal a long-term downturn or a temporary pause in a larger growth cycle.
Speaking Wednesday on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” Lerner said the bull market in his view is very much intact [1]. He said the current state of the U.S. bull market is firmly intact while the cycle enters what he called the "seventh inning stretch" [3].
Lerner said the recent pull-back is a market reset rather than a structural change. He said the underlying economic expansion still supports the bull trend [5, 6].
Recent data shows stocks are sliding toward a second straight month of declines [7]. Additionally, the S&P 500 has been locked in a range for more than two months [8].
Despite these figures, Lerner said the current pullback appears more consistent with a reset than a change in the broader bull-market trend [6]. He said the market is simply adjusting its trajectory rather than reversing its direction.
Lerner's perspective suggests that the fundamental drivers of the market have not shifted, even as short-term price action remains bumpy [7].
“The bull market in our view is very much intact.”
The 'seventh inning stretch' analogy suggests that while the bull market is in its later stages, it is not yet over. By framing the recent volatility as a 'reset,' Lerner is signaling to investors that the current price corrections are healthy adjustments to valuation rather than a signal of an impending recession or a fundamental collapse of economic growth.
