Randy Bateman, president of the Huntington Funds and manager of the Huntington Situs Trust /quotes/zigman/312263HSUTX-0.99% says his firm is planning two different investment strategies for the end of the year and into 2013, one for each of the major Presidential candidates.
In the MoneyLife MarketCall interview, Bateman noted that his firm – a top-down money manager that uses the big picture to drive investment decisions — has “developed two different strategies, one if the Obama Administration stays in power, and another completely separate and distinct strategy should there be a change in administration.”
“If Romney wins, then we would overweight our exposure to coal,” Bateman said, “we would overweight, defense, finance, industrials and health-care stocks.
“If Obama wins, then we would overweight the green programs, we would overweight hard assets, we would overweight staples, utilities and telecom, and infrastructure type stocks, overweight communications, and generics in the health-care pharma area, and overweight consumer discretionary stocks.”
Bateman noted that there may also be investment changes based on the tax policy of the winning candidate, though he anticipated that might have to do more with whether an investor decides to shelter income or growth/capital gains in retirement plans.
Currently, Bateman said Huntington is overweight in energy, and health care – noting he sees a lot of takeover and merger activities in that sector – as well as agri-business. Noting the promise of agri-business worldwide, Bateman said he has also been attracted to stocks like Cabela’s and Family Dollar Stores that don’t fit the agri-business mold but that “would benefit from an expansion of disposable income in the farming community.”
During “Hold It or Fold It,” when guests give their appraisal of stock requests made by the MoneyLife audience, Bateman put buy recommendations on Rio Tinto PLC /quotes/zigman/182541/quotes/nls/rioRIO+1.77%, Pfizer Inc. /quotes/zigman/238207/quotes/nls/pfePFE+0.46%, Trimble Navigation /quotes/zigman/79108/quotes/nls/trmbTRMB+0.27% and eBay /quotes/zigman/76117/quotes/nls/ebayEBAY+2.37%. He put a “hold” on Regions Financial /quotes/zigman/351634/quotes/nls/rfRF+0.57%, noting his decision was “completely dependent upon what takes place in the election,” noting that if Republicans come in, he expects regulatory changes to help super-regional banks, but if the current course stays the same, regional bank earnings will wither.
You can listen to the interview at www..
-Chuck Jaffe
