Marc Faber, who is the publisher of the Gloom, Boom and Doom Report, gave an interview on Bloomberg Television this Monday showing some real caution that is mixed with some optimism.  Faber spoke to Bloomberg’s Betty Liu and surprisingly noted that the Japanese market may outperform all the other markets against all expectations in 2012.  If so, the iShares MSCI Japan Index (NYSE: EWJ) is likely to move from its $10.14 price today closer to its 52-week high of $10.91.

Faber also noted in the Bloomberg interview that investors should be very careful at this stage because he believes that earnings may begin to disappoint and also that profit margins could deteriorate.”  He called the economy as having bottomed out but also said that growth is far from robust.

On the broader stock market Faber said, “I’m not ruling out that stocks can continue to go up but I doubt they will go up at the same rate as the first quarter. And if you look at the technical under underpinnings of the market, they have deteriorated… we have an overbought condition in the market if we measure the number of stocks above the 50-day and 200-day moving average.”

Gold investors who own the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) may want to note that Faber is now not recommending more gold purchases and is only recommending to hold current positions.  Faber noted, “”As you know, I have been very positive about gold and I still accumulate gold every month. But I think that we had an intermediate peak at $1921 on September 6 of last year. Then we dropped sharply to $1,522 an ounce on December 29, 2011. Since then we’ve had a feeble recovery. I think that the correction period is not yet over. I’m not selling my gold because I don’t trust governments and I don’t trust the Federal Reserve, nor would I trust the ECB or other money traders in the world. They are all going to print money. I still recommend to hold gold.”

Today’s Bloomberg interview may still seem a bit less-doom with only a light boom.

FULL BLOOMBERG INTERVIEW

JON C. OGG

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