A sell-off worse than December can arrive in a week, says analyst who is predicting ‘Lehman-like’ drop
Yun Li | CNBC
Aug 26, 2019

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Remember the brutal sell-off last year when stocks suffered their worst December since the Great Depression? Something worse than that could happen in days, a Nomura analyst said.

Macro and quant strategist Masanari Takada turned heads earlier this month with his bold call for a “Lehman-like” plunge. He’s sticking with this prediction as market sentiment shows no signs of improving, leading him to believe a monster sell-off could arrive this week.

“The U.S. stock market especially is facing its greatest test of the year thus far,” Takada said in a note to clients on Monday. Low sentiment is poised to prompt “panic-selling by fundamentals-oriented investors and systematic selling by trend-following technical investors along the way,” he said.

Takada’s view, the most pessimistic on Wall Street, is based on macro and quantitative data including flows from hedge funds and other players, which showed sentiment is approaching the lowest level of the current cycle.