The dollar index has risen following speculation of a rate hike by the Federal Reserve, and Piper Jaffray technical analyst Craig Johnson sees that as positive for the once-struggling financial stocks.
"We're finding strength in the financial sector," he said Monday on CNBC's "Power Lunch." "Perhaps we're going to see a rate hike in November or December. Financials look good [and] they will benefit off of that, and a lot of the large-cap banks are turning higher."
Financials were previously the worst-performing sector on the S&P 500 before Mylan's EpiPen drama sank health care. But even before health care's drop, the financial sector had actually begun seeing signs of a turnaround. For the most part, second-quarter earnings were better than expected for big banks, many of whom saw their stocks rise and recover during the summer. More recently, Janet Yellen's Friday speech in Jackson Hole has spurred speculation that the Fed could be set to raise rates in December, if not September.
Aside from the big banks, there could be other big names who could benefit from the stronger dollar. Dennis Davitt, partner at Harvest Volatility Management, believes that businesses with more U.S.-based revenues could also see their stocks rise.
"I look at things like Wal-Mart, Hershey's, big companies, not necessarily small companies, but a predominant amount of their revenues come from the United States," he said. "So stocks that will behave well in an overheated U.S. economy will do well, and it might be people who you wouldn't expect."
Davitt's view rests on the fact that a stronger dollar means that import costs will be higher for foreign countries, making U.S. goods more expensive. Since a rising dollar would tend to mean that the U.S. economy is improving, companies with more U.S.-based revenues could see more consumers as opposed to those with a more international focus.
"[Products] made in the United States are going to be harder to sell overseas because the dollar is stronger, [but] take it from the point that the U.S. economy is stronger," he added.
