
Bank of America top banker Rick Sherlund sees a major market shift ahead.
According to Sherlund, optimism surrounding technology stocks will make a comeback this year — but the key is weathering upcoming earnings season first.
“What we need to do is de-risk 2023 numbers,” the firm’s vice chair of technology investment banking told CNBC’s “Fast Money” on Thursday. “When we go through the fourth quarter in earnings, I think companies will indicate a reduction in force. They’ll talk about cutting back on go-to-market spending… This is all encouraging.”
Sherlund’s expertise is software. He hits No. 1 on Institutional Investor’s all-star analyst list 17 times in a row when he was an analyst.
And, he’s known for leading Goldman Sachs’ technology research team through the 2000 dot-com bubble, a time he calls “breathtaking.” The latest market backdrop reminds him of prior downturns.
“2022 was a terrible year for these [software] stocks,” said Sherlund. “We’ve seen tremendous compression in valuation. The good news is that downturns are ultimately followed by upturns. So, we’ve just got a lot of near-term crosscurrents.”
His latest market forecast coincides with the tech-heavy Nasdaq‘s latest struggles. It fell 1.47% to 10,305.24 on Thursday, and it’s