US Markets

If Trump fails to deliver on a corporate tax cut, expect a 10-15% correction, says expert

What to buy as the rally stalls
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What to buy as the rally stalls

The market is already pricing in a corporate tax cut, which means there could be trouble if those cuts don't get done, expert Robert Luna told CNBC on Thursday.

President Donald Trump has promised to slash the corporate rate from 35 percent to 15 percent, while the House Republican plan calls for a 20 percent corporate rate.

"If that's something that doesn't get passed, I think watch out below. A 10 to 15 percent correction is definitely something we're preparing our clients for," the chief investment officer for Surevest Wealth Management said in an interview with "Closing Bell."

Oliver Pursche, CEO of Bruderman Brothers, is also preparing his clients for such a move.

"The reality is that every day that passes, you get closer to a correction," he said. "That's OK because they're part of a natural cycle."

The market has soared since the election, but the rally took a pause on Thursday. For Luna, it's time to start looking at what to buy here and what to take off the table.

"Fear and greed are two of the most difficult emotions to judge in the market and I think we're getting to that point where you have to start looking at how greedy are people being. Valuations are a little bit stretched here," he said.

When it comes to what to buy, Luna said, "We're trying to find some industry-leading companies who maybe have been left out of this rally a little bit."

One name he's buying right now is Polaris, because of its good balance sheet and other "great things" going on with the company, he said.

Pursche would stay invested but reduce risk by focusing on high-quality balance dividends and stronger balance sheets.

"You reduce the risk by making sure that you are not using anything that's leveraged or that … is too volatile. So you pair down the volatility but not the level of investments," Pursche told "Closing Bell."

Momentum still on the side of the bulls

However, while the market was down on Thursday, it wasn't down "aggressively," CNBC market analyst Steve Grasso pointed out.

Because politics are "steering the ship right now," the controversy over Attorney General Jeff Sessions' contacts with Russia during the election is what sent stocks down, the director of institutional sales at Stuart Frankel said.

"A lot of these things are entry points where the momentum is still there on the side of the bulls," Grasso told "Closing Bell."

He thinks in the next couple of days after the headlines dissipate, "you'll see the bulls back in charge."

Michael Bapis, managing director of Hightower Bapis Group, is also "riding the wave of optimism" that's sweep the market recently, but he thinks it is earnings that will continue to push stocks higher.

"Are companies going to continue to grow their earnings? Are they going to continue to keep cash on hand? And are their balance sheets going to stay clean? We believe that they will," he said. "There may be a slight pullback but long term we're projecting earnings growth and market growth."

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