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Third Point founder and chief executive Dan Loeb, in a colorful manner, isn’t a believer that current U.S. economic growth will be sustained.
In a now-deleted message on the social-media service X, the former Twitter, Loeb quote-tweeted a New York Times opinion piece arguing that Bidenomics is still working very well. The hedge-fund investor called it “MrMagooenomics” and said celebrating conditions now is like enjoying a party before the hangovers and DUIs, though he conceded that Americans were, at the moment, having a “splendid time.”
The cartoon character Mr. Magoo, it should be noted, often ended up in a situation no worse than previously, despite his comic bumbling.
Loeb, who in the past hosted fundraisers for both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama but whose more recent political donations, and social-media posts, appear to have taken a rightward turn.
The U.S. unemployment rate is at a historically low 3.7%, and gross domestic product grew an annualized 3.3% in the fourth quarter, though inflation remains high with year-over-year consumer-price growth of 3.1% in December.
See: Recession signs fade in U.S. despite 22nd straight drop in leading economic indicators
Also: Recession fears evaporate in new forecast of top economists
Loeb’s flagship offshore fund returned 3.4% last year, compared with the 26.3% total return for the S&P 500
SPX.
“While assets have certainly priced in some of the good macroeconomic news on inflation and rates, we still believe headline equity market multiples exaggerate the valuation most companies are trading for and continue to find high-quality companies trading at reasonable valuations,” he said in a shareholder letter earlier this month.
Third Point’s most recent 13F filing does show some “Magnificent Seven” winners including Microsoft
MSFT,
Amazon.com
AMZN,
and Meta Platforms
META,
but notably it did not include Nvidia
NVDA,
whose stock soared Thursday as it became the No. 3 most valuable company in the S&P 500.
