Morgan Stanley’s chief U.S. equities strategist, Mike Wilson, said Friday he was feeling “very good” ahead of the upcoming earnings week, noting that strong fundamentals have been carrying the markets throughout the year.
“This is what we’ve been waiting for,” Wilson said on CNBC’s “Halftime Report.” “These are the best fundamentals we’ve seen since the finance crisis in ’09 and ’10, meaning we have synchronous global recovery economically. We have the best earnings revisions and breadth we’ve seen since then across sectors and regions.”
A “synchronous global recovery” occurs when all the major economies around the world are gaining momentum following an economic downturn.
S&P 500 firms are expected to post 9.6 percent earnings per share growth for the second quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S estimates Friday morning.
Wilson also noted that financial, industrial, technology and energy companies may be set for strong growth in the second half.
“Last year it was all about value, economies expanding again so everyone rotated to value. This year value worked a little bit, then of course around March 1st, when I would argue President Trump’s popularity peaked, that’s when we went back to this barbell secular growth and sort of defensive quality.”
“It’s a balance now between growth and value.”
With the exception of energy, each of the sectors Wilson highlighted has seen strong growth year to date. Information technology and health care lead the group, up 23 percent and 17 percent, respectively. On Friday tech stocks were down, with the S&P 500 heading to close lower to end the week.
Though Wilson said he is neutral on health care, he pointed out that the industry may benefit from a calmer political atmosphere
Wall Street has been monitoring recent political gridlock in Washington over the future of health care as Senate Republicans failed to unify behind a plan this week to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. House Speaker Paul Ryan told CNBC’s “Power Lunch” on Tuesday that setbacks on health care should not deter the GOP from pursuing an overhaul of the federal tax code.
On the flipside, Wilson advised selling shares of companies in telecommunications, real estate, and staples.
“It’s expensive defensives,” he said. “If you look over the last eight years, every risk market in the world has normalized.”
Wilson noted that investors consider these industries with respect to current interest rates and premiums. “The last area that has risk premiums that are still available is in traditional stocks that people have shunned like financials.”
Source: Investment Cnbc
Morgan Stanley's chief stock strategist says he feels 'very good' ahead of big earnings week