BlackRock’s Doll Says QE3 Unlikely in Contrast to Gross

BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest asset manager, says the Federal Reserve will refrain from conducting a third round of debt purchases as the economy grows. “QE3 will be seen only if the U.S. economy flags,” Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at BlackRock, which oversees $3.51 trillion, said today on Bloomberg Television’s “First Up” with Susan Li. “Ben Bernanke will use it if we have a rainy day and only then,” said Doll, who is based in Princeton, New Jersey. “As long as the U.S. economy’s growing 2 1/2, 3 percent and unemployment in the U.S. is falling, that’s not an emergency,” Doll said. “QE is saved for emergencies.”

The outlook contrasts with that of Bill Gross, who runs the world’s largest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co. and says the Fed may buy several more times. The central bank has purchased $2.3 trillion of debt in two rounds of quantitative easing known as QE1 and QE2 as it seeks to support the world’s biggest economy. Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Jan. 25 that he’s considering another program of purchases. Gross wrote that a third, fourth and fifth round of easing “lie ahead,” in a Twitter post last week.

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