Stocks Rally ‘Way Ahead’ of Economy, Allianz’s Achleitner Says
Allianz SE, Europe’s biggest insurer, expects stock markets to fall because economic recovery is lagging behind the 59 percent jump of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index over the past seven months.
“The market rally right now is — my personal view is — way ahead of real-life developments,” Paul Achleitner, head of finance at Munich-based Allianz, said yesterday in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. “The expectation level is so high, you’re going to have the risk that there’s going to be a discrepancy in expectation” and economic data, Achleitner said.
The S&P 500 has surged from a 12-year low on March 9 amid signs the worst U no fax pay day loan.S. recession since the Great Depression is abating. Still, unemployment in the U.S. climbed in September to 9.8 percent, the highest level since 1983, and economists expect a rebound in consumer spending will wane as joblessness surpasses 10 percent.
“You’ve got to make sure that you don’t commit yourself too fast,” Achleitner said of managing assets backing Allianz’s insurance policies. “We are cautious on the equity markets in terms of how much we are actually putting to work there.”
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