'Dramatic' rate cuts aren't justified: Portfolio manager

In this article:

The major US indexes (^DJI,^GSPC, ^IXIC) are climbing higher on the newest initial jobless claims data and July's retail sales, which eased investor concerns of a recession. As Wall Street braces for a September interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve, GLOBALT Investments senior portfolio manager Keith Buchanan joins Wealth! to break down how you can best position your portfolio.

Buchanan explains that he's been moving clients away from Magnificent Seven, large-cap names as the market became "unbalanced." While the market has bounced back from the volatility seen last week, he remains cautious, especially as the Japanese yen carry trade unwinded and a rotation remains underway. "We want to be broad and diverse in equities, like equities overall. But we want to be balanced with growth and value going forward," he tells Yahoo Finance.

As the Fed embarks on its rate cut journey, Buchanan believes that "how they communicate the cadence going forward is going to dictate what the market expects." The Fed's rhetoric will be critically important to set growth expectations for the rest of the year.

"We are skeptical of whether the Federal Reserve has enough wiggle room to cut each meeting and also an additional cut, whether it's a jumbo cut, more than 25 basis points, or a cut between meetings. But by the end of the year, we don't think the scenario economically justifies moving in such a dramatic manner, so we're skeptical of whether the market gets those 100 basis points of cuts between now and year-end," Buchanan says. "We feel like 25 each meeting is a cadence that we expect."

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth!

This post was written by Melanie Riehl

Advertisement