Soros says market rebound a bear-market rally

LONDON, May 21 (Reuters) - Billionaire hedge-fund manager George Soros said on Wednesday the current rebound in stock markets is only a bear-market rally, because monetary authorities are unlikely to be able to handle the credit crisis.

Soros told a seminar at the London School of Economics, "The prevailing market opinion is that this crisis is like previous ones ... markets have been rallying on that. But I think it's actually just a bear-market rally based on a false conception the authorities can handle all these crises."

"This time the ability of the authorities to handle the crisis is constrained -- they'll not be able to avoid a recession," he said. (Reporting by Laurence Fletcher; Writing by Quentin Bryar; Editing by Greg Mahlich)