Gross also recommended investors buy Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, known as TIPS, as a hedge against the risk that expansionary government and monetary policy could eventually spark inflation.
The performance of the $251 billion Total Return Fund puts it behind 51 percent of similarly managed funds through during the past year, falling 2.2 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Pimco, a unit of the Munich-based insurer Allianz SE, managed $1.97 trillion in assets as of June 30.