Investing guru Leon Cooperman shared some of his savvy advice on just what stocks he owns right now.
"I'm finding a lot of stocks that are attractively priced," the hedge-fund manager told CNBC. "My largest position is Google."
Cooperman said Google’s parent, Alphabet, trades at 19 times next year's earnings and is able to grow its sales at 20 percent per year. He likes how it has a "fortress balance sheet," CNBC.com explained.
He also owns growth technology stocks such as Facebook and Amazon.
"Amazon is changing the whole landscape of retailing," the chairman and CEO of Omega Advisors said.
He also likes financial stocks.
"We own some Wells Fargo. We own some Citi," he said. "Interest rates are below where they ought to be. I expect interest rates to rise," he said.
Cooperman also expects oil prices will increase to $60 per barrel.
"We own Hess. We own Parsley Energy ... WPX Energy," he said. "The world economy is not going to grow 3 percent to 3.5 percent without the demand for energy growing."
U.S. stocks slumped on Wednesday, as a round of disappointing corporate earnings and a spike in bond yields put both the Dow Industrials and S&P 500 index on track for their worst session in seven weeks.
Benchmark U.S. 10-year note yields hit a seven-month high of 2.475 percent, buoyed by economic data, recent optimism over progress on tax reform by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and anticipation of a nominee to head the Federal Reserve, Reuters reported.
“This is something that’s been brewing for a few days, high dividend-paying names have been weak, weak, weak and the reason is this new move in the 10-year and the 30-year,” said Stephen Massocca, senior vice president at Wedbush Securities in San Francisco.
“Although they aren’t particularly dramatic, that has people concerned that there’s changes in policy, that things are going to come to an end, that we’re going to be faced with higher rates, and as a result of that, equities are worth less.”
Equities pared losses as yields retreated, following a Fox Business interview with Trump in which he said he was still considering keeping current Fed Chair Janet Yellen in the position. The 10-year last fell 11/32 in price to yield 2.4444 percent.
Low interest rates have been a driving factor in the 8-year bull market, with investors pushed into equities as other lesser-yielding instruments are viewed as unattractive by comparison.
Earnings season so far has been largely positive, with 72.1 percent of the 165 S&P 500 companies that have reported to date topping expectations, matching the average for the past four quarters.
However, with U.S. indexes at record levels, investors are taking a closer look at earnings to see if they justify stretched valuations.
Traders also cited a Wall Street Journal report that suggested - in contrast to commitments by Trump - that Republicans were still considering limits on 401(k) retirement savings plans which could, in turn, dampen flows into investment funds.
(Newsmax wire services contributed to this report).
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