Multi-millionaire investor Kevin O'Leary believes energy is the greatest entrepreneurial sector in the American economy.
"I love energy. Everybody hates energy. If you didn't own energy in the last 18 months, you miss the market. Go where people hate it. Energy is the driving pivot," the "Shark Tank" star explained during an appearance on "Kudlow" Wednesday.
O'Leary said that he has particular confidence in the oil and gas industry, an assertion that was enthusiastically backed by FOX Business host Larry Kudlow.
"I do not hate oil and gas. The cash flow, the distributions and health care. Wow. That sector is looking golden right now," O'Leary touted.
O'Leary continued, saying that despite several economists' grim economic attitude, he is firmly "optimistic" about the U.S. economy.
"I still am optimistic on the economy, this incredible economy. And the best part – and this is the secret sauce, the juice that really makes it work – total gridlock in Washington. No more spending bills, impossible to get any policy done. And the market loves that," he explained.
An additional source of O'Leary's optimism is a pandemic-induced economic shift – companies adopting a "direct-to-consumer model."
"I'm optimistic for one reason, coming out of the pandemic, the entire S&P 500 went to a direct-to-consumer model. I don't care if you're Nike or anybody else. Margins went up pre-pandemic. Nike was at 9% of sales, direct consumer. Now they're over 30 on their way to 50, much higher margins," he said.
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"A lot of productivity came through the pandemic. A lot of digitization. A lot of adoption of digitization by seniors in the country that never used it before. You've got a whole economy running on a different model than you've ever seen."
O'Leary joked, saying that he "hate[s]" to be an optimist, but with the economy's promising progress, he's simply unable to be "pessimistic."
"So, I'm a little optimistic that the reason that you should think optimistically about margins and free cash flow is many companies have figured this out. There's a new America 2.0, and I hate to be an optimist when I should be pessimistic, but I can't be," he said.
"I've got 54 companies now that are private that are just killing it. We haven't seen the slowdown yet. Where is it? Everybody keeps telling me, recession, recession. Okay, show it to me," O'Leary concluded.
