Citi's Levkovich: Not in new bull mkt

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - While stocks have recovered from March lows, the market has not entered a new long-term bull market, Tobias Levkovich, chief U.S. equity strategist for Citigroup, said on Monday.

Absent some new and unforeseen shock, the market should not revisit the March lows, Levkovich told the Reuters Investment Outlook Summit in New York.

"We don't believe we're in a new secular bull market," Levkovich said. "Do I think we're seeing the March 9 lows again? Not without exogenous variables at this point. Can we have a pullback in markets? Of course."

He said he sees the market as similar to what was seen in the 1930s and '70s in the United States, when it took many years for stocks to return to their previous highs.

"From 1932 when you hit your bottom to 1940 ... I think most people would say we were mired in the Great Depression. Yet in that period there were five major trading rallies that averaged 90 percent," Levkovich said.

But, he said, the bull market did not start until 1956. Similarly, in the 1970s, there were six major trading rallies, yet the market's bull run did not start until 1982.

Levkovich sees the benchmark S&P 500 index hitting 1,000 by year end. That would be an 8 percent increase from the 923 level the index ended at on Monday.

Each of the three major indexes fell more than 2 percent on Monday, pressured by regional manufacturing data and resource shares. But the S&P index has gained about 40 percent since the 12-year closing low of March 9.