11 Stocks to End Year 'Strongly': Chief Investor

Markets rose on Thursday after data showed the economy grew more than expected last quarter and jobless claims fell. How should investors be positioning their portfolios now?

Dan Genter, president, CEO and CIO of RNC Genter Capital Management, and Dean Barber, founder and president of Barber Financial Group, shared their market insights. (Scroll down for Genter's stock picks.)

“It will be very easy for us to take a pause,” Genter told CNBC.

“[But] I think we’ll drive strongly until the end of the year, because we’re now seeing confirmation that we knew the bottomline was going to come in. Because of cost cuts, people were concerned about diminishing returns.”

“We’re seeing that, as lean as these companies are, they’re going to be able to drive the topline, improve margins [via] a very small modicum of increase in gross sales, which generally we’ll get from exports,” he added. “So people will see that and the valuations are good.” (Counterpoint: Economist David Rosenberg believes the market is generally over-valued. Click for more).

Genter Likes:

IBM

Oracle

Microsoft

Cisco

Intel

CVS Caremark

P&G

Kellogg

Kimberly-Clark

Johnson & Johnson

Teva Pharmaceuticals

Barber's Outlook:

In the meantime, Barber recommended that investors—especially baby boomers—focus on more conservative sectors.

“Until we get a real clear signal that this is over with and there’s still way too many things in the air, that we don’t know how they’re going to play out next year,” he said.

“So we’re going to maintain our positions in the conservative space.”

Barber Likes:

S&P Energy

S&P Health Care

Other Points of View:

CNBC Data Pages:

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Disclosures:

No immediate information was available for Barber or Genter.

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Disclaimer