Analyst Ed Clissold shared his thoughts on the market outlook and where investors may want to look if the economy runs out of steam in an exclusive interview with CNBC PRO’s Mike Santoli.

“When you’re in this slow growth environment, you want to continue to focus on companies that can deliver the growth anyway – they don’t need the economy to do well. It’s almost by definition: growth stocks,” explained Clissold. “This comes from the technology sector, health care as well – although obviously Washington is going to have a say in that. Discretionary is the other one, although that one is definitely our least favorite of the growth sectors.”

“Globally, we actually like emerging markets. Multiples there are more attractive and economic growth looks to be a little bit better there than what you’re seeing in the developed world.”

Clissold is chief U.S. strategist for Ned Davis Research Group. He and his team are responsible for the firm’s U.S. equity, asset allocation, style, sector and equity theme analysis. Previously, Ed worked at Strong Capital Management and as a market strategist at J.C. Bradford & Co.

As a part of his interview, Clissold also revealed his thoughts on tax reform.

“The tax cut really could be a game changer and kind of save the consensus numbers. If you do a back-of-the-envelope analysis of what a tax cut would mean,” he explained. “If you took the tax rate down to 20 percent, which is the latest proposal, it could be around a 7 percent boost to S&P 500 earnings.”

“And again, that could be the difference between the numbers coming in where analysts are expecting and a pretty big mess.”

Source: Tech CNBC
PRO Talks: Market strategist Ed Clissold talks tax reform, favorite growth areas