Elections shaping up to be a lose-lose for the stock market, expert says
The elections, earnings and energy are all driving the market, veteran industry insider Jack Bouroudjian said Friday, and a lot of what he's seeing isn't making him confident right now.
For one, the election is shaping up to become a "lose-lose" scenario for equities, the chief economist for UCX and CNBC contributor told CNBC's " Closing Bell " on Friday.
"It's starting to feeling as if there isn't going to be a clear winner as far as the equity markets are concerned. They've factored in a Hillary victory but the real question is will it continue to go up if Hillary does win," he said.
He's also concerned about the earnings picture right now, noting that top line revenues are starting to "scare" him. He pointed to General Electric (GE)'s result as a case in point. On Friday, it trimmed its full-year revenue forecast from 2 percent to 4 percent to flat to 2 percent growth.
"These top line revenues have to increase. We have to see better numbers come out of corporate America or we are too expensive from a valuation standpoint," Bouroudjian said.
Rene Nourse, managing director at Urban Wealth Management, said she feels comfortable getting back into the market now that she thinks it is signaling a likely outcome in the election.
She told "Closing Bell" she particularly likes financials, in part because she expects the Federal Reserve to hike rates in December.
For CNBC contributor Evan Newmark, the market is a "giant snoozefest."
"There's not a lot going on. We've been in this $20 trillion holding pattern in the equity markets for most of the past 2 years," he told "Closing Bell."
Newmark believes in order to go higher there needs to be an understanding that Hillary Clinton will be president and that there will be fiscal stimulus. That should send Treasury yields higher, which should help financials and give confidence to the market, he said.
But right now, he said it's hard to see what the catalyst is for the market.
"When you don't have a lot of catalysts, you don't have a lot of global economic growth, you have basically a holding pattern," Newmark said. "It's not the end of the world. It doesn't mean the market is going to fall 25 percent tomorrow. It just means that you know what you've got to be in it for [over] the long term."
