Wall Street veteran Art Cashin told CNBC on Monday that there are a variety of indicators that show the stock market may be ready for a pullback.
Cashin said on “Squawk on the Street” that Goldman Sachs’ bear market risk indicator is the highest it’s been in a couple of decades. He also cited comments by longtime strategist Jeff Saut that the market could stall.
“We’ve run into some resistance here, so I think you get a pullback,” added Cashin, director of UBS’ floor operations at the NYSE.
Separately, Cashin said Wall Street isn’t taking President Donald Trump’s trade threats too seriously because investors expect it’s all part of his negotiating tactics.
“The president is posturing,” said Cashin. “Everybody’s got the feel his ‘Art of the Deal’ is to come in with a wild, wild opening ploy. … They still believe it’s a negotiating stance.”
Cashin said the market was experiencing a sort of “sigh of relief” rally early Monday after stocks fell last week on word Trump warned he was ready to hit China with an additional $267 billion worth of tariffs.
On Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry vowed it would respond if the United States takes any new steps on trade.
Trump is attacking what he sees as unfair trade on a number of fronts.
Cashin has previously said investors appear to be OK with Trump’s hard-line approach as long as any key trading partners don’t “walk out the door,” permanently, Cashin said in late August. “They think the process is slow, but it’s ongoing.”
Cashin began his career in 1959 at Thomson McKinnon. In 1964, at age 23, he became a member of the NYSE and a partner in P.R. Herzig & Co.