The managers at First Eagle who oversee $60 billion didn't wish for Monday's market crash. But that's not to say they didn't welcome it. They pulled out their list of favorite companies, and what they think their stocks are worth, and bought more of the ones that looked really cheap after the S&P 500 dropped 6.6%.
In the past couple weeks, Brooker, who co-manages several value-based funds, bought the stocks of building products companies and construction aggregate firms."The market was down 17% over a month," Brooker says, "yet the value of a business is very unlikely to change by 20% in a month--it's not something that typically happens." Brooker compared the U.S. market's recent swoon to the Japanese market collapse earlier this year. Both were sharp and likely driven by fear, not fundamentals.
Equities, commodities, and high yield bonds have seen a dramatic sell off in the last couple of weeks. While they are cheaper, recent history suggests that we still have room to fall before there's blood in the streets.
