Sell-Off Was Another 'Flash Crash': Barton Biggs

Barton Biggs, a managing director with Traxis Partners, dismissed Thursday's sell-off as "another Wall Street flash crash panic" and said that, despite the recent spate of weak data, he still believes the U.S. economy could show real growth over the next couple of quarters.

"I'm sorry I can't get bearish here," Biggs told CNBC Friday. "There's too much fear and too much panic selling. There's too much momentum-oriented selling, and I don't think the global economy's going to collapse.

Tight stop-loss limits and high frequency trading contributed to the selling once the market started to cascade downward, Biggs said.

"This another Wall Street flash crash panic, and I think it's overdone," he said. "Any long-term investor ought to be buying stock."

Art Cashin, director of floor operations for USB Financial Services, has also called the market's steep drop "a classical technical breakdown" and said high frequency trading was contributing to the decline.

Biggs said he remains optimistic about the U.S. economy going forward, citing a pick-up in retail spending in certain areas, good news in Friday's employment numbers, and the rise of real incomes due to low inflation as evidence that the economy could exhibit growth during the next few quarters.

He added that he thinks the market could rally 5 to 7 percent in the relatively short-term, and if the economic data is more encouraging, the market could increase even further.

Not everyone is as optimistic about the global economy as Biggs is. In an interview with CNBC, Mark Faber, editor and publisher of Boom, Doom and Gloom Report, said investors should see any market bounce as a selling opportunity.

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Disclosure information was not available for Barton Biggs or his company.

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