The stock market may have seen most of its gains for 2013, but there's still money to be made, Roger Altman, chairman and founder of investment banking adviser Evercore Partners told CNBC on Tuesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index have each increased more than 15 percent so far this year.
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"We may have seen the lion share of the gains for 2013, but I don't think we've seen the lion share of the gains for a three to five year period," Altman said in a "Squawk Box" interview.
"The macro factors underlying the market remain positive," he added. "The United States [is] healing slower than anyone would like, but healing." He cited such sectors as housing, autos, energy, retail sales and lending.
"We're slowly building a foundation for … a stronger 2014, 2015, and 2016, which really ought to be pretty good years in the United States. Three percent [economic] growth or may be a little bit better," Altman said.
While equities recently hit new high after new high, and the Dow Industrials go for the 20th straight Tuesday of gains, the Federal Reserve's minutes of its latest meeting injected some concern that the central might start scaling back its $85 billion a month bond-buying program sooner than had been expected.
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"We're not of the camp that says the Fed is going to unwind its balance sheet anytime soon," said Lee Partridge, who oversees $17.4 billion of assets as chief investment officer at Salient Partners.
The Fed is "just as likely" to increase asset purchases as decrease them over the next year, he told CNBC. "Part of our view that's most constructive on equities is dependent on the Fed maintaining an accommodative stance through 2015 … at the earliest."
Before the financial crisis, the Fed's balance sheet was around $800 billion. It's now grown to more than $3 trillion.
"I think the Fed, in general, has made the right choices," said Altman, a former deputy Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton. "History is going to regard the Fed's action in the immediate wake of 2008, and the following one year, as the textbook going forward for how to respond to a true emergency."
He stressed he's "fairly confident" that policymakers can "unwind this."
"Maybe very slowly," he offered, "[But] in a way that is not severely disruptive either to markets or the economy."
28 May, 2013
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Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100769106
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