Oppenheimer Asset Management's John Stoltzfus is looking to add stocks to his portfolio this earnings season — about two months after warning investors there was no escape from the coronavirus fallout.
"It's going to show us winners and losers within the sectors — companies that may be positioned to weather this better," the firm's chief investment strategist told CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Monday.
Stoltzfus warned investors in late February there was nowhere to run as coronavirus infections started spreading beyond China. But he advised investors to start jotting down well-managed companies they'd like to buy at cheaper prices.
Now, he believes a bull market is '"somewhere in the distance," and he's taking steps to capitalize on it. His current list has more than two dozen names on it.
"It's not a huge list, but it's a shopping list of companies that we would like to add to positions that we already hold," he added. "Some of them [we] opened new positions. Things that might have gotten away."
Stoltzfus speculates utilities, in particular, could help boost portfolios. It's a group he was actually avoiding earlier this year.
"With all the rescue efforts both [from] the Federal Reserve as well as the administration on both sides of the aisle have put in, we like utilities," he said. "We still have an underperform in some of the more cyclical sectors, but we like dividend yields. We think regulated utilities can hold their own in this type of environment."
Stoltzfus, who has worked on Wall Street for four decades, sees the massive stimulus and low interest rates as bullish influences on the market.
"We're looking for things that will be not so much for use today, but things that will develop well closer to seeing the spread of the coronavirus stemmed by either a vaccine or drug that is of superior efficacy," said Stoltzfus.
Since S&P 500's all-time high on February 19, it's down almost 19%. However, the index is 26% above its recent low.
"The market foresees that there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and it's not a railroad train about to bear down on his," Stoltzfus said. "It's light of day instead."
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VIDEO4:2604:26A bull market is 'somewhere in the distance,' Oppenheimer's John Stoltzfus saysTrading Nation
Source: cnbc.com
