Things in the United States are "not as great as we would like them to be," and Friday's jobs report proves it, Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at John Thomas Financial Leadership told CNBC Friday.
The Labor Department reported unemployment rose to 9.2 percent in June, and an angry Kaufman blasted the White House for its economic policies. He wondered if the figure would be worse had the Obama administration succeeded in raising taxes on businesses.
"Any group of managers with this track record would be fired," he said. Government policymakers "are trying to goose the economy. They’re like a four-year-old kid with a hammer. Everything looks like a nail. They do not know when to stop. They do not create wealth. That’s just the fact. They’re like traders who overtrade a book."
In the current market, Kaufman said there are companies doing tremendous business around the globe and his picks are Caterpillar, Halliburton and Celanese.
Caterpillar has strong earnings, he said, while Halliburton is benefiting from an increase in U.S. drilling activity.
He likes Celanese because it makes chemicals used in cement, plastic bottles and building materials and has developed a technology to make ethanol from coal.
In the same interview, Lance Halfert, president, West Coast Asset Management, said he is "still positive on the next six months" and will wait until September at the earliest before deciding whether to change that view.
"America definitely has its problems but I still think it’s far and away better than a lot of the countries and a lot of the problems that other parts of the world are having," he said.
The market seems to be shrugging off the jobs data the way it shrugged off Greece last week, Halfert pointed out.
"I think people realize it’s just one month and let’s see what happens in the next two to three months over the summer," he said.
Halfert picks are Target and Las Vegas Sands .
______________________________
CNBC Data Pages:
- Dow 30 Stocks—In Real Time
- Oil, Gold, Natural Gas Prices Now
- Where's the US Dollar Today?
- Track Treasury Prices Here
______________________________
Disclosures:
Wayne Kaufman, his family and his firm have no shares of CAT, HAL and CE.
Disclosure information was not available for Lance Helfert or his company.