- Don't panic if stocks tumble another 10%, Wharton professor
Jeremy Siegel said Monday. - Siegel expects US
inflation to run higher than the current 7% print, prompting a more aggressiveFed . - He shared he's positioned towards
value stocks that will resist rate hikes better than long-duration stocks.
Investors shouldn't worry too much about another sell-off in the stock market, according to Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel.
"I don't think anyone should panic, even if we have another five or 10% [drop]," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Monday.
US shares overall have had a volatile January, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 narrowly avoiding its largest drop in the first month of the year on record. The biggest theme in
The benchmark S&P 500 is down 5.2% and the Dow has fallen 3.3% so far this year, while the Nasdaq has lost 14.6%.
Siegel, who expects red-hot inflation to run even higher, warned further bold steps by the Fed are yet to come. US consumer price inflation is currently at 7%, the highest in four decades. That's well above the central bank's 2% target.
"I don't think the stock market is fully prepared for that and that's why I think there's going to be some more rocky times ahead," he said.
Even so, the finance professor said he hasn't sold any of his stocks — and will add to his portfolio if the market slides further.
"I'm going to make it work and position more towards the value stocks that I think are going to resist the rate hikes better than the long-duration stocks," he said.
In fact, he said he's waiting for the market to slide further so he can increase his exposure.
"I'm waiting for a bit more, maybe 5% to 10," he said. "I do not try to do short-term manipulation of the market. I kind of look at long-term valuation, and I see long-term valuations have been reasonable."
Siegel said last week he wouldn't be surprised if the Nasdaq falls into a bear market, a period in which the index falls by at least 20% from its historical average.
But he still has an overall positive outlook for equities.
"I'm not bearish about the stock market long-term," he said. "I still think it's very fairly valued. I just think that we got to be prepared for a much more aggressive Federal Reserve."
He's previously predicted a 9% rise for the S&P 500 this year, and suggested investors should own dividend-paying stocks to protect against rate hikes.