This may be the best news for stocks in a long time: Bill Gross, who manages the world's biggest bond fund, says the 30-year bull market in fixed-income securities is ending.

Though Gross, who runs Pacific Investment Management Co.'s $214 billion Pimco Total Return Fund, would never tell you to buy stocks, isn't that what he means?

Pimco, which Gross co-founded, more or less said as much in December.

It announced the Pimco Global Opportunities Fund, which will invest in stocks, though it also will buy bank loans, junk bonds and distressed securities.

Stocks should be due for better times after a decade that featured the dot-com crash followed by the more recent Wall Street-induced credit crunch.

The market certainly has picked up in last 12 months.

The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 Index is up more than 70 percent from its recession low a year ago this month.

Stocks have improved along with the American economy, which grew 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter as corporate profits jumped eight percent.

Let's wait to see if Pimco makes an even bigger splash in stocks.

David Pauly is a columnist for Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are his.