Duquesne Family Office Chairman Stanley Druckenmiller stated Monday that "animal spirits" have returned to the market, fueled by "giddy" CEOs anticipating Trump's return to the White House. Speaking to CNBC, the billionaire investor argued that the U.S. economy is shifting from "the most anti-business administration" in history to the most business-friendly administration.
REBECCA QUICK: A lot of people have been wondering how you're feeling about things, just from a market's perspective, from an economy perspective. What do you have to say today?
STANLEY DRUCKENMILLER: The economy is very interesting. We're at a very low unemployment rate, essentially 4%, with 3% GDP growth. I've been doing this for 49 years, and we're probably moving from the most anti-business administration to the opposite. We do a lot of talking to CEOs and companies on the ground, and I'd say CEOs are somewhere between relieved and giddy. We're believers in animal spirits. Paul Ryan was on your show last week talking about a 32% increase in business confidence over the last 12 months, which is probably a record in terms of change.
So the economy looks very strong, at least for the next six months, which is about as far out as one can see with any degree of confidence.
In terms of the markets, I would say it's complicated. Despite what I just said about all the wonderful things about the economy, we have an earnings yield to bond yield ratio that's probably the most unattractive level in 30 years.
So you'll have this push of a strong economy versus rising bond yields in response to that strong economy, and that makes it hard to have a strong opinion one way or the other on the market.
I will say this: in my business, every change creates change in security prices, and having this kind of radical shift from one administration to another, in addition to what's going on in the private sector with innovation, then you've got deregulation from the government, disruption. I think there’s going to be plenty of chance, plenty for your viewers to do. I wouldn’t worry about the market, I would focus on individual stocks.
