CNBC
- David Tice is bearish on "big tech" stocks and bitcoin as they look expensive to him.
- The veteran fund manager advised investors to exercise caution in a high-risk market.
- Tice is bullish on gold and silver miners due to inflation and currency-depreciation fears.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
"Big tech" stocks and bitcoin are too expensive, while gold and silver are cheap and effective hedges against inflation and a weaker dollar, veteran investor David Tice said in a recent CNBC interview.
"We have come back a long way from the April lows of 2020 after the COVID-19 scare," the cofounder of Moran Tice Capital Management said. "However, we're not out of the woods yet and this is a dangerous market."
Tice's concerns include the stock market appearing overpriced relative to projected corporate earnings, the US government racking up record amounts of debt, Treasury yields slumping in recent weeks, and accelerating inflation – even if it proves to be temporary.
The fund manager warned investors that have piled into Alphabet, Microsoft, and other technology companies that those aren't "one-trick ponies" that guarantee handsome returns, and betting on them remains risky. Indeed, he predicted in another CNBC interview in January that stocks would plunge at least 30% during a two-year downturn.
Tice also underscored the appeal of gold and silver when global governments have been plowing trillions of dollars of stimulus into their economies.
"You look at this lack of discipline in monetary and fiscal markets, gold is truly the place to be," he said. "I would be owning gold, especially gold and silver mining companies," he continued, adding that some of those miners are trading cheaply, growing quickly, and will profit if gold prices rise.
Tice rang the alarm on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as well.
The investor owned bitcoin when it was trading around $10,000, deeming it useful protection against depreciating fiat currencies. However, he balked when it surged to $60,000 earlier this year.
"We felt like that was long in the tooth," Tice said. "It had gone up too far, too fast," he continued, adding that central bankers in several countries have criticized bitcoin in recent weeks, paving the way for stricter regulations.
"It's very dangerous to hold today," Tice added.
Tice's warnings echo those of "The Big Short" investor Michael Burry and billionaire investors such as Jeremy Grantham, Leon Cooperman, and Stanley Druckenmiller, who have all expressed concerns about current market valuations and predicted painful downturns.