The early September pullback has made lots of stocks attractive. Savita Subramanian thinks investors need to be cautious, however. “The name of the game is don’t be a hero,” Bank of America’s head of U.S. equity and quantitative strategy, told CNBC’s ” Squawk Box ” on Friday. “Park in safe, total-return type vehicles where you get paid to wait.” Subramanian mentioned utilities and real estate as sectors that can help investors navigate this tough market. The Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLRE) and Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLU) are each up more than 5% in the past month. Stocks kicked off the new month of trading this week on a sour note. Through September’s first three sessions, the S & P 500 has lost 2.5%. Seasonal headwinds, coupled with lingering uncertainty over the health of the U.S. economy, have dragged equity prices lower. .SPX mountain 2024-09-02 SPX in September Adding to those concerns was the latest U.S. employment report. The economy added 142,000 jobs in August, slightly less than a Dow Jones consensus forecast of 161,000. June and July numbers were revised down sharply. Subramanian also pointed to political worries, with the U.S. presidential election two months away. “The idea is that you see a lot of volatility from July to November of election years, and this year’s true to form,” Subramanian said, noting investors are contending with potential binary outcomes on energy, immigration and other issues depending on which candidate wins. Elsewhere on Wall Street this morning, JPMorgan upgraded Nio to overweight from neutral. “With the stock price halving YTD and hence expectations low, we believe Nio may well exhibit a relief rebound beyond year-end, driven by [a] financial and operational turnaround,” analyst Nick Lai wrote in a note to clients.
