PRO Talks: Wells Fargo's Darrell Cronk on why it may be time to move away from tech

Darrell Cronk , president of the Wells Fargo Investment Institute, shared his market and economic outlook — as well as potential areas to invest — in an exclusive interview for CNBC PRO with Mike Santoli.

Cronk said that given technology's strong performance over the last year, investors may be better suited sticking with other cyclical stocks.

"People forget this, but as you get into the later stages of the cycle that those areas that can drive true revenue and sales growth often outperform," Cronk said. "Most of your cyclical sectors, consumer discretionary, tech, industrials [and] financials are all up nicely this year."

Cyclical stocks — which tend to perform well during economic expansion — including consumer discretionary and financials, are outperforming the broader market so far this year. Consumer discretionary stocks are up 3.6 percent since January while the S&P 500 lost more than 1.1 percent.

"If you look at the traditional defensives like utilities, staples, telecom, they're all down year-to-date right now," Cronk said. "I do think there are some areas we are starting to push some valuation issues, and tech might be one of those. ... We're even weight on tech right now."

In addition to being president of Wells Fargo Investment Institute, Cronk is chief investment officer for Wealth and Investment Management, a division of Wells Fargo & Co. that includes Wells Fargo Private Bank, Wells Fargo Advisors, Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Abbot Downing businesses, accounting for more than $1.6 trillion in assets under administration.

He also discusses:

  • The state of the U.S. economy and why the market isn't likely to see a recession in 2019.
  • The impact of further rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
  • Why investors should start to move away from corporate debt.