Stocks and bonds have been neck and neck this year, trading at or near 2016 highs. According to one technician there will be on clear winner, and that's stocks.
Piper Jaffray technical analyst Craig Johnson sees the S&P 500 soaring higher, and breaking through its all-time high of 2,130. Between a fewer number of stocks on the market today and what Johnson calls the "wall of worry" among investors at this time, he believes the S&P 500 will soon see its key support levels "clipped away."
"Twenty-one 15 is looking like it's very close to being breached, and then after that we're at 2,135 up to new highs," he said Monday on CNBC's "Power Lunch," "Then this fear trade starts to come on, and that fear trade [has people thinking] 'we're missing out on this bigger move higher.'"
The result, according to Johnson, will have the S&P 500 moving to approximately 2,350 by the end of the year — an 11 percent rise from current levels.
While Stacey Gilbert, head of derivative strategy at Susquehanna Financial, agrees that equities triumph over bonds, she cautions that investors should focus on specific sectors and stocks.
"It's the fixed income ETF that gets a little more interesting, both on the treasury-level and investment grade in high yield," said Gilbert. "When we look at high-yield volatility relative to the broader market S&P 500, it's positioning for more movement there."
While evaluating the level of risk in stocks and bonds, Gilbert anticipates more volatility in the fixed income market.
The S&P 500 closed Monday afternoon at 2,109, just off highs for the day that saw the index match levels unseen since November.
