Wedbush: Stock market is at a major top

If you’re an individual investor, it’s time to steer clear of the market warns the Head of equity trading at Wedbush Securities, Ian Winer.

“Ultimately, there’s a real issue going on in the market place” said Winer - “so people need to be very careful here and look in their portfolios and know what they own and why they own it.”

This is a tough time for investors with the S&P 500 stock index (^GSPC) having nearly tripled since tanking during the financial crisis in March 2009.

Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen chiming in saying stock valuations “generally are quite high” added to jitters. Debt market investors also experienced a volatile ride when bond yields in Germany shot higher Thursday before retracting.

What Yellen says matters a lot when the markets have held up, largely in part by liquidity generated by central banks.

Winer referenced BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink’s remarks on companies spending on their own businesses - ”what we’ve seen is a lot of financial engineering, a lot of liquidity from central banks and ultimately, it hasn’t equated to any earnings growth this year.”

Winer is convinced stocks will drift lower this year, “we’ve entered the possibility that 2015 S&P earnings are going to be below 2014 S&P earnings.” He’s forecasting the S&P 500 at 1800-1900 by the end of the year saying “we are at a major top.”

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