After a scary October,
the stock market could have a winning November.
The Dow rose 241
points Wednesday, or 1%. The Nasdaq jumped
2%, while the S&P 500
climbed 1%. The solid trading session follows a strong Tuesday in which the Dow soared 432 points.
The
Nasdaq's gains Wednesday trimmed its monthly decline to 9.2% — still the
index's worst month since November 2008. The S&P 500 ended the month down
6.8%, its steepest decline since September 2011.
Expect
stocks to get back on track following this month's pullback, Brian Belski,
chief investment strategist for BMO Capital Markets, said Wednesday on CNN's
"Markets Now" live show.
Belski
described the dip as "very normal and very healthy."
"We
never like to see people lose money, but we needed to take some complacency out
of the market," he said.
This
stock market had an extremely volatile month. Big Tech stocks plunged as
earnings growth slowed, interest rates rose and the threat of a longer China
trade war intensified.
But
concerns that corporate earnings would falter were overblown, according to
Belski.
"Everyone
was nervous about earnings for no good reason," he said.
Weak results from industrial companies
such as 3M (MMM) and Caterpillar (CAT) did push down markets last week, but the index raced
back by day's end.
"We
think this is a bull market correction within a very large secular longer-term
bull market," Belski said.
Now is
the time to put money into American stocks, he continued. After the credit
crisis, investors risk playing too much defense, he said.
"American
companies are the strongest of the world, with the most consistent earnings
growth," Belski said. "You need to be a buyer of American stocks, and
we're here to stay."
"Markets
Now" streams live from the New York
Stock Exchange every Wednesday at 12:45 p.m. ET. Hosted by CNNMoney's business
correspondents, the 15-minute program features incisive commentary from
experts.
You
can watch "Markets Now" at CNNMoney.com/MarketsNow from your desk or on your phone
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