Bond yields are soaring. But this strategist says she’s still a fan of these ‘compelling’ stocks
Bonds may have become more appealing as Treasury yields hit new highs. But investment strategist Amy Kong says stocks are still attractive. On Tuesday, the yield on the 2-year U.S. Treasury rose to its highest level since 2007, topping 5%, as investors weighed the prospect of more interest rate hikes. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury also briefly topped the key 4% level earlier in the same session. Higher bond yields are typically bad news for investors in stocks. Bonds compete with stocks for investor dollars, so when bond yields rise, stock prices can go down. But Kong said she’s not getting out of stocks just yet. “We continue to be constructive on stocks relative to bonds and cash but recognize risks have escalated,” Kong, who is chief investment officer at CI Barrett Private Wealth, told CNBC’s ” Street Signs Asia ” on Wednesday. She acknowledged that stocks face a challenging medium-term outlook, given headwinds such as expected earnings declines and margin pressures. But Kong remains upbeat on the longer term. “We think the short term continues to be quite volatile for stocks in general and growth in particular, but the longer-term stories of some of these growth-type names continues to be compelling to us,” she said. “It really is the innovation of many of these business models and earnings that has kept these stocks attractive from our perspective over the long run and we expect them to continue to lean on innovation to grow earnings per share through a fuller business cycle,” she added. Stock picks One of Kong’s top core holdings is JPMorgan Chase . She noted that the bank has been able to take advantage of its size and brand, and she is “OK” with the bank spending “more than necessary” in recent quarters to gain some market share. Kong is also a fan of CEO Jamie Dimon’s leadership. Within tech, she favors Microsoft , calling it a “stellar company” with a good business model. She added that the company is generating a lot of free cash flow and is more attractive than Alphabet . Microsoft also has “a lot more growth engines,” according to Kong, while its cloud computing business also remains “healthy,” with expected growth of about 30% over the next quarter. Kong is also a fan of Apple . While the company has a degree of cyclicality, she believes Apple has done a “phenomenal job” building its ecosystem around the consumer — a development that Kong said will “really help them over the long run.” “Of course, [Apple] is a cash cow. They return a ton of cash back to shareholders. And we do think that the innovation story remains quite solid for Apple as a business model,” she said. More broadly, she believes investors will have a “greater preference” for companies with strong dividends and buyback programs. “We continue to emphasize companies with what we see as having competitive moats, solid cash flow and pricing power to offset inflation. Valuations remain a critical metric to consider as higher price-to- earnings stocks carry greater downside risk. Dividend growth is another important factor to bear in mind,” Kong added.
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