Stocks struggled Friday after a mixed batch of economic and earnings news, and as investors continued to weigh the next steps from the Federal Reserve. Benny Lorenzo, CEO of Kaufman Brothers and Charlie Smith, CIO of Fort Pitt Capital Group discussed their insights.
“The direction continues to be up—we’ve had a very good September and October performance and it continues to march higher," Lorenzo told CNBC. "We like the technology stocks."'
Lorenzo warned investors that the market could see a pullback in the short-term as the Fed's action for quantitative easing may be tempered.
"But we’re going to have the elections first and the market has priced in Republican wins, so that’s positive,” he said. “The Fed’s actions—we would see a somewhat of a slowdown, but we’ll get over that. The economy is in fact improving and earnings continue to be better and higher.”
In the meantime, Smith said investors should be focusing on companies that have a dividend yield.
“We like the insurance brokers,” he said. “Eventually, we’re going to get some better pricing in insurance brokers.”
Smith Likes:
SanDisk
Marsh & McLennan
Lorenzo Likes:
Veeco Instruments
Apple
Terremark
Scorecard—What They Said:
- Lorenzo's Previous Appearance on CNBC (Oct. 27, 2010)
- Smith's Previous Appearance on CNBC (Sept. 1, 2010)
More Market Intelligence:
- Art Cashin: Top Events to Watch Next Week
Small Was Beautiful In Stocks, But Now Big Is Better
- Cramer: This Stock is ‘Best of Breed’
CNBC Data Pages:
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Disclosures:
No immediate information was available for Lorenzo or Smith.
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