David Tepper bullish on U.S. economy and stocks

David Tepper, the hedge-fund manager who runs the $15 billion Appaloosa Management LP is bullish on U.S. stocks in 2013 since the economy is set to grow by as much as 3 percent this year. In an interview on Bloomberg TV with Stephanie Ruhle Tuesday, Tepper said that “the country is on the verge of an explosion of greatness.” “Everything lines the right way,” Tepper said. He explained that there are no major negatives and basically nothing to worry about. “You really have not had this money supply push on a relatively good economy,” Tepper said. In recent news, the Republicans are not going to play with the debt ceiling. If they pass legislation on Wednesday, there will be a few months of relative quiet. Tepper believes that the “main thing right now is to be long equities.” He thinks there will be a shift in new money and old money or the incremental funds will move into the equity market over the course of this year. There will be movement in the credit market but it is inferior to the equity markets. One of the fund's top holdings is Citigroup, which he thinks has a 50 percent upside from here due to its international business. “It's steady, growing in the right places in the world,” he said on why Citi's foreign business is unique. While joking around during the interview and singing a bit from “Bye, Bye Birdie,” Tepper said that if he wasn't a professional investor, he would want to be a social worker. He likes the idea of being a philanthropist and getting out there and helping people. His biggest regret was not having used Rogaine earlier; Tepper rocked an afro in 1978, which kept him from a job at McDonald's. He mentioned that he'd rather work at McDonald's than be on the sell side. But the biggest mistake Appaloosa made was in 1998 when they lost money in Russia. They moved quickly in Russia, but not fast enough to not have a loss. “We thought Russia was going to devalue and not default in ‘98 and I was wrong. We were down some 20 percent.” However, Tepper has found that more people want to invest in Appaloosa when they're down because they have a better record than they do generally. The company will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year. His fund was up 30 percent in 2012.