Birinyi, Biggs Advise Holding Stocks After S&P 500’s Decline

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-03/birinyi-advises-holding-stocks-with-scotch-after-s-p-500-erases-2011-gains.html

The seven-day slide that wiped out the 2011 gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is no reason to sell stocks, according to investors including Laszlo Birinyi andBarton Biggs.

The drop surprised Birinyi, whose Westport, Connecticut-based research firm Birinyi Associates Inc. sees the bull market in U.S. equities lasting until 2013, based upon the length of prior advances. Investors who sell after the S&P 500’s 6.8 percent loss since July 22 will miss out, he said in a telephone interview yesterday. Biggs, managing partner and co-founder of Traxis Partners LP, said U.S. stocks have become a “strong buy.”

‘Strong Rally’

“We are going to have a strong rally out of this position,” Biggs, who helps manage $1.4 billion in assets, said. He added that politicians had handled the debt-ceiling debate “poorly” and as a result dollar-denominated assets are“tremendously cheap.”