Housing stocks are poised to build on their strong first half of the year, and energy stocks should see a similar rally in the years ahead, two top fund managers told CNBC on Wednesday. Fundstrat head of research Tom Lee and Hightower Advisors chief investment strategist Stephanie Link said at a CNBC Pro Talks event that they are both bullish on the outlook for housing stocks and energy companies. “Both sectors are super cheap. I mean they’re always kind of cheap, but they’re really cheap,” Link said. Lee and Link’s position is backed by one of history’s most successful investors. Berkshire Hathaway’s quarterly holdings report showed that Warren Buffett’s investment company bought shares in several homebuilders during the second quarter, including D.R. Horton . And Berkshire’s top holdings include energy names Chevron and Occidental Petroleum . Housing stocks have already risen sharply this year, with the SPDR S & P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) up about 23%. The gains have come even though housing data has been conflicting, as consumers grapple with a national housing shortage and mortgage rates climb above 7% . XHB YTD mountain Homebuilder stocks have rallied in 2023. The combination of demographic change that is driving demand for more housing and the expected end of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hiking cycle could help the rally for those stocks continue, Lee said. “The 30-year mortgage could drop to like 5.5% overnight if the Fed says ‘this is our last hike,'” Lee said. Link pointed out that a strong housing market can also generate growth in other areas, such as furniture sales, which could potentially expand the rally beyond homebuilder stocks. Both investors agreed that energy stocks could see a similar rally to housing in the years ahead. “I believe what we are seeing with homebuilders is going to happen with energy stocks in two to three years. The same supply scarcity; energy owns a really unique resource, and their multiples are going to re-rate,” Lee said. Link said she has double the weight in energy in her portfolio as the broader market. She said she likes to use a barbell approach to energy, pairing industry giant Chevron with energy services stocks like SLB . She also owns Diamondback Energy . Lee said that Exxon and Devon Energy are on Fundstrat’s “granny shots” list, which means that the stocks appear in multiple strategic portfolios created by the firm, but that other energy stocks can also perform well. “I think this market share of energy is going to rise to 15% from 5%. When you triple its relative market value, a lot of things win,” Lee said. In addition to energy stocks being cheap, they could also see fundamentals improvement if oil prices continue to rise, Link said. “Your earnings are probably depressed after a year’s worth of oil coming down. The earnings aren’t what they were a year ago. So as oil starts to actually go higher, they can actually grow into those earnings,” Link said.
