stocks

Top Strategist Buys 'Chicken Financials' -- Carefully

Andrew Fisher
WATCH LIVE

Large-cap growth stocks, especially in the technology sector, are where investors ought to be putting their money right now, according to Jason Trennert.

Trennert is chief investment strategist and managing partner at Strategas Research Partners LLC.

"I think investors should really increase their bets toward growth, as growth becomes less abundant," he told CNBC.  "One of the things that I find interesting about the market today is that tech is down a lot.  I think it's already pricing in recession."

Other sectors, such as materials, have not yet been driven down as far.

"The other thing that's interesting about technology is that from a balance sheet perspective, it has very little debt and is loaded with cash," he said.  "Tech is not going to have to go into the credit markets in a deep way, so it can fund a lot of its expansion, whereas some of these other industries may not be able to."

Trennert is still very selective about financial stocks.

"I'm in 'chicken financials' right now," he said.  "'Chicken financials' I describe as asset managers, such as Charles Schwab, Legg Mason , Waddell and Reid .  I'm also in the boutique investment banks, Evercore and Greenhill

.  The problem with the financials is...this is a long-fuse type of problem.  Even if all the bad stuff has been discounted, the earnings power of these companies, because of the size of the balance sheets is lower, is just less."

And he has a caveat, one that he says no one seems to be talking about.

"I think the Fed's going to ease again, probably by even another 50 basis points," he said.  "The Fed is clearly on an easing path, but there is a chance...the Fed may actually have to take some of this monetary stimulus back later this year, and that's something that I think puts...people who are investing in financials in a very difficult spot."