The recent market action is pointing to some good news for the summer, analyst Chris Johnson told CNBC on Wednesday.
For one, more than half the companies that beat earnings expectations for the first quarter sold off by almost 2 percent the next day, he said. A prime example is Nvidia, which sold off after reporting earnings last week but has since come back.
“This is a sell-the-headlines or sell-the-news type of market, and it’s shown that those have provided opportunities for people to step back in,” said Johnson, CEO and director of research at Johnson Research Group.
“That’s what helps drive the market through the summer.”
Stocks closed higher on Wednesday, with the small-cap Russell 2000 posting a record close.
That is also a telling sign, Johnson told “Closing Bell.”
“When the Russell is leading the market higher, that is a true bull market. Those are the markets you want to be invested in,” he said. “This is a market that’s got some legs even though we’re heading into what would be a seasonally weaker period.”
Jim Lacamp, senior portfolio manager at UBS, also believes the market is pretty healthy and said it “just doesn’t care” about the 10-year Treasury yield hitting 3.095 percent on Wednesday. That is its highest level since 2011.
“If you are looking at a market that repeatedly addresses the 200-day moving average and then rallies beyond that, that’s a pretty healthy sign. We’ve set a new higher low end on the market as well,” he said on “Closing Bell.”
Plus, earnings are coming in strong, small-cap stocks are hitting highs, mid-cap stocks are “behaving well,” businesses are spending money and retail sales are pretty strong, Lacamp added.
In this environment Lacamp likes financials, consumer discretionary, materials and technology.
Johnson likes energy and retail stocks.
