Concerns over the delta variant and other headwinds have investors concerned about volatility.
Here are four experts’ thoughts on what they’re looking for in markets for the rest of the month.
Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s “Mad Money,” discusses the Federal Reserve‘s difficult task in dialing back its stimulus.
“This is a different kind of economy. I do expect that the government could screw us up. They always do. They do too much stimulus at this point. … I thought [St. Louis Fed President James] Bullard had a lot of good things to say, which is that we have enough job openings already. … Do we really need more stimulus? So I think that we’re kind of in a hard place which is that some people want stimulus, some people don’t.”
Aureus Asset Management CEO Karen Firestone shares where she’s putting money to work.
“The market, despite going up and grinding higher, has been a bit directionless when it comes to groups that are leading. We’ve gone from large cap growth to cyclical value, reopening, reclosing. Everybody’s been in the lead so what we think is it’s best to be with some certainty and predictability and the kind of names we like would be Facebook, Salesforce, S&P Global, American Water Works, American Tower, Waste Connection, even Netflix fits that category. And so be clear on what you’ve got.”
Brenda Vingiello of Sand Hill Global Advisors says fundamentals should remain strong into October.
“Well, we’re going to hear a lot in the coming weeks from the Fed, also learn more about company fundamentals just as conference season kind of kicks off here. So I think the fundamentals, though, are still really quite strong, but … I think having a balanced approach makes sense so not completely abandoning the growth trade. The key is we do see some slowing. I think we’ll certainly get more evidence that there was a little bit of a slowdown here in August related to delta variant, but I think the market is looking past that and it’s recognizing that things are on the other side. So I think that October could end up being a surprise just like August where fundamentals really continued to be quite strong and that really could help the market continue to at least be in a trading range and not really experiencing a significant correction.”
Former Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher shines highlights one major issue: the supply chain.
“We have an imbalance between supply and demand, we have increase in demand, we have bottlenecks on supply. This will not be alleviated in a short-term period. When you’re looking at the port activities in Los Angeles and that part where everything comes into our country from Asia or on the Eastern Seaboard, these pressures are more sustained, I believe, and it won’t just go away overnight.”
