Dow 18,000 just the beginning: Pros
While some investors may be worried about oil derailing the rally, two pros told CNBC on Thursday they expect the Dow Jones industrial average (Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJI) to break 18,000 soon, and go even higher.
"The overriding thing driving this market up and the reason it will break 18,000 is not the oil patch, it is the Fed patch. It's the $4.5 trillion that they jammed into the economy that's pushing every asset price higher almost every day," John Rutledge, chief investment strategist at Safanad, said in an interview with " Street Signs ."
However, falling oil, even sustained prices in the high $60s, low $70s, will help fuel the rally, Sandy Villere, co-portfolio manager at Villere & Co., said, because it will keep inflation low.
" Janet Yellen said we're going to keep rates low for a long time, until we meet that 2 percent target. So as long as inflation's beneath that, that means rates are going to be low and that is going to buoy the markets and continue it through 18,000 and above," he said.
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While low oil prices will have a negative impact on U.S. production and gross domestic product, they are also a major tax cut for the consumer and manufacturing facilities that are "guzzling petroleum products," Villere added.
But he doesn't think low oil prices will be around for a while.
"I don't think it's going to stay down here for long term. There's a finite amount of it," Villere said. "Looking at all these shale drillers, you're going to see the production come down dramatically."
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Rutledge agreed, noting that prices are down because of the market, not any grand plan by OPEC.
"Nobody here is intentionally driving oil prices down. They're just happening because of the increase in production and soft demands. Those things will reverse," he said.
In fact, the International Energy Agency estimates that the demand for energy is going to increase by 50 percent in the next 25 years thanks to emerging markets, and it will take $37 trillion of capital spending to meet that demand, said Rutledge, also a CNBC contributor.
"There's an incredible demand for capital coming out there. That is good for investors. So 18,000 is just the beginning," he said.
