- Jim Lebenthal says he's more bullish than ever before amid the economic recovery backed by monetary and fiscal stimulus.
- The chief equity strategist at Cerity Partners argued markets have already corrected and are set up for gains ahead.
- Lebenthal also said he's selling Verizon and adding Kinder Morgan and ViacomCBS.
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Jim Lebenthal, the chief equity strategist at Cerity Partners, said that he's more bullish than ever in an interview with CNBC on Friday.
Lebenthal argued that different sectors of the markets including tech, financials, and energy have already corrected down and are on their way back in bullish moves.
The problem, in Lebenthal's view, is that the different sector corrections didn't all happen at once, which obscured a clear view of the overall market correction for investors.
"We've had the correction. What happened was the sectors were out of sync with each other when they were correcting, so it didn't show up in the overall market," the chief equity strategist said.
Lebenthal added that markets have a supportive fed and fiscal stimulus in the pipeline that is set to buoy markets moving forward.
Lebenthal did say he was "worried about taxes," but argued that the tax regime won't be clear for "many, many months."
The strategist went on to say that he sold shares of his defensive, dividend play, Verizon, and added shares of ViacomCBS and Kinder Morgan because of his bullish view of the US economy and markets.
"I want to be in Kinder Morgan … as the economy continues to expand, jet fuel, gasoline, diesel, is demanded and needs to flow from refineries to end-users. That's a company that now is operating or projecting cash flow better than they were projecting going into 2020," Lebenthal said.
The Cerity Partners strategist then said both Kinder Morgan and ViacomCBS are growing and set to outperform Verizon in the coming months.
"I'm as bullish as I can ever remember myself being," Lebenthal added.
Lebenthal's positivity isn't rare on the Street, but everyday investors aren't nearly as bullish. An increasing majority believe the stock market is in a bubble, according to the results from the latest E*Trade survey.
Out of 957 active investors who manage at least $10,000 in an online brokerage account, 69% told E*Trade they believe the market is either fully or "somewhat" in a bubble, while just 9% said valuations are "not close to a market bubble."
