Tom Lee: US Stocks May Have Bottomed This Month, Oil Price Rally Actually a Relative Positive for Stocks

On March 15th, Tom Lee—Chairman of Ethereum Treasury firm BitMine—told CNBC in an interview: “I think tech has held up pretty well overall, including software stocks. That makes sense to us, but I’ve got a bit of a counterintuitive take: rising oil prices are actually good for U.S. equities. One reason? The U.S. is a net oil producer. When people worry rising oil will drag on global growth, they gravitate toward growth stocks—and that pushes investors into U.S. markets, since the U.S. is essentially a ‘growth index’ itself, especially with the MAG-7 and software sectors leading. So the current market action checks out. I also think the market could be putting in a bottom this month.” “Private credit issues have been bubbling under the surface for a while—they’re just coming to light gradually now. But I don’t think this is as systemic a problem as the market fears. When problems pop up, people immediately jump to Lehman Brothers and the 2008 financial crisis—but there are key reasons this time is different. First, the market isn’t nearly as large as it was back then. Second, the credit stress signals we’re seeing now aren’t nearly as severe as 2008’s. So while it’s definitely weighing on the financial sector right now, it won’t turn into a systemic issue for the broader market or economy.”