DoubleLine Capital's Jeffrey Gundlach said it's "frightening" to see major financial stocks trading at prices below their financial crisis levels.

The money manager cited Deutsche Bank AG and Credit Suisse Group AG as examples in a talk outlining bearish views at an investor conference in Beverly Hills, California, on Friday.

The manager of the $54.7 billion DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund said the dollar is headed lower in 2016 and that he's buying foreign currencies for the first time in five years.

"We see the price of major financial stocks, particularly in Europe, which are truly frightening," Gundlach said. "Do you know that Credit Suisse, which is a powerhouse bank, their stock price is lower than it was in the depths of the financial crisis in 2009? Do you know that Deutsche Bank is at a lower price today than it was in 2009 when we were talking about the potential implosion of the entire global banking system?"
 
Both stocks fell this week to their lowest levels since the early 1990s in European trading.
 

DoubleLine Total Return's performance ranks in the top 1 percent of peers for the past five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It has gained 1.5 percent this year through Thursday, mostly by investing in mortgages while avoiding volatile corporate debt.

Gundlach said he's considering buying corporate debt later this year as prices continue to fall.

"Don't tell me what to buy," he told the Tiger 21 conference for high-net-worth investors. "Tell me when to buy it."

NOT FOR REPRINT

© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.