Is it too late to join the market rally? Morgan Stanley's Slimmon weighs in and names stocks to buy

Published Wed, Jun 14 202310:09 PM EDT

Markets rallied on the back of cooler inflation data released on Tuesday , with the S & P 500 and the Nasdaq reaching fresh 13-month highs. Now, investors may be wondering if there will be a correction or if it's too late to get in on the action. Andrew Slimmon of Morgan Stanley Investment Management says a "meaningful" correction may not happen right now. "People are still on the sidelines, kind of waiting for that elusive pullback to get more involved. And I suspect that will put a floor on meaningful corrections. I think to get real corrections you have to have people move from bullish to bearish and I think positioning remains very bearish looking for an opportunity to get more fully invested," the senior portfolio manager told CNBC's " Street Signs Asia " on Wednesday. "There's just been too much froth in the last few days," he added. Slowing inflation data had given the market optimism that the U.S. Federal Reserve will pause its rate hikes. The Federal Reserve did leave rates unchanged on Wednesday but indicated it would hike another two times this year. Slimmon expects inflation will be stickier than it seems. "Really to get [to an inflation target of 2%] you've got to push unemployment higher and really wring out wage growth and that's not what is politically palatable, right. So I think we're going to end up with higher levels [of] inflation than what's expected," he said. The consumer price index , which measures changes in a multitude of goods and services, rose just 0.1% for the month, bringing the annual level down to 4% from 4.9% in April. "But it's premature and the stock market is right now feeding off … those lower inflation month to month price," Slimmon added. Stock picks Nevertheless, there are pockets of opportunity in the market right now, according to Slimmon. He named three stocks to buy: American equipment rental company United Rentals , financial services company Ameriprise and building materials company CRH . Though market returns were dominated by just seven mega-cap tech stocks earlier in the year, the gains have begun to be more widespread. Slimmon said there's an opportunity to get back into cyclical stocks. They had sold off after the regional bank crisis on expectations that contagion to the wider economy would follow. However, the economy isn't "showing enough weakness" right now for investors to be fearful. "We're seeing [the] breadth widen and some of the industrials did very well today and so that's a healthy sign for the market. And I think that will continue to attract money as people are looking for airways to get invested," he said. "In my opinion, investors looking to get into the market will view the recent laggards as an opportunity to get more invested," he said of those three stocks. — CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this report.