Nuveen Suggests Sectors For Back Half Of 2015

Barring a few tech stocks, the first half of 2015 hasn't really been great for equity investors; the markets overall have remained range bound. Bob Doll, Nuveen Asset Management chief equity strategist, was on CNBC Friday to discuss which sectors investors should park their money in for the second half of the year.

Sector Suggestions

"I will lean, well, to sticking with the financials. They are working; they have been wonderful stocks, really since the October of last year's low," Doll said. "I would also stick with those companies that can get unit growth that don't require pricing power. That takes you to healthcare, parts of technology.

"The deeper cyclical side of the market, which does include transports and energy and materials, without pricing power – I just think they'll continue to lag."

Underweight Multinationals

Doll was asked how a stronger dollar will impact earnings and whether he will stay away from companies with a lot of international exposure. He replied, "My portfolios are still heavily domestically oriented[...] we obviously had a big run in the dollar. We have had a pause here for the last few months."

He continued, "Well, I think we see more dollar strength, especially against the euro. I am not sure it's tomorrow morning that that happens, but I would still be underweight the multinationals. Slower growth overseas and the rising currency – why not remain domestic?"

Jobs And Wages

On whether he expects jobs and wages to increase in the second half, Doll said, "Look, if we can continue the jobs number that is the unit growth, the new jobs and the initial unemployment claims at recent numbers, I think we will be just fine.

"That's an economy that's growing faster than the trend. The delta [...] comes with wages; we start to see some increases. The employment cost index has begun to move up a bit. I think we'll get some more," he concluded.

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