‘Bond King’ Jeffrey Gundlach says there’s no doubt ‘we’re in a mania,’ but gold is a ‘real asset class’

Jeffrey Gundlach, founder and CEO of DoubleLine Capital, has delivered a striking assessment of the current investment landscape, arguing the U.S. equity market is engulfed in a “mania” while simultaneously identifying gold as the primary refuge, elevating the metal to the status of a “real asset class.”

The “Bond King” told Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast on Monday the U.S. equity market is “among the least healthy” he’s seen in his entire career. Citing metrics such as the price-to-earnings (PE) ratio and the cap ratio, he noted “all the classic valuation metrics are off the charts.”

The billionaire investor asserted there is “no argument against the fact that we’re in a mania,” likening the enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI) to previous manias about, for instance, electricity—ex