Gabelli: Stocks Will Reward 'Mindless Investors' for Decade

Gamco Investors CEO Mario Gabelli is bullish on stocks for the decade.

“As I look out over the next three or four years, equities are going to return very generous returns relative to fixed income because companies still have pricing power,” Gabelli says.

Gabelli says that during the next 10 years, markets will reward “mindless investors” who buy index funds and didn’t make any money in stocks over the past 10 years with returns of 5 to 7 percent.

The annual reports coming out now show that businesses have very healthy balance sheets, Gabelli observes.

“They’ve cut costs, they keep their foot on the cost structure volume is improving and earnings are exploding,” he told CNBC. “The first quarter earnings are going to look very good.”

Successful investors don't just judge stocks on broader markets, Gabelli says. “Go stock-specific, company-specific,” he advises. 

Traders say the market is also being affected by technical trading around the key 11,000 milestone for the Dow and by expectations for the first-quarter earnings season, The Wall Street Journal reports.

"Once we get into the full swing of earnings season, though, that may do the trick to get us over 11,000," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners.

"We'll probably get strong growth and some gains, then a correction once the market has fully priced in the earnings."