'Fortress' companies can succeed in this economy, but speculative stocks have further to fall - Strategas
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Strategas Research Partners CEO Jason Trennert argued Tuesday that well-established companies that are able to generate their own capital can succeed in the current economy. However, he sees more speculative names as vulnerable as rising interest rates constrain their ability to raise funding.
"There are good companies out there. The economy is still strong enough, in my opinion, that good companies can execute," Trennert told CNBC.
The analyst's comments came amid a wave of quarterly results from some of Wall Street's biggest names. Before Tuesday's open, results were released from GM (GM), GE (GE), Coca-Cola (KO) and McDonald's (MCD). Later in the week, earnings reports are due out from the likes of Alphabet (GOOG)(GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), Meta Platforms (META) and Amazon (AMZN).
"These are fortresses, these are blue chip companies that have permanent capital," Trennert observed, although he saw potential signs of weakness elsewhere in the market, as investors looked beyond the top layer of solid players.
"There's an awful lot of companies still out there ... that are quite speculative and, in my opinion, that's where the real issues are going to come for investors," he said.
As a result, Trennert predicted that the major U.S. equity averages would eventually head to new lows. He characterized the recent bounce, which has taken the market off of 52-week lows reached in June, as a rally in a bear market.
The Strategas CEO projected that the Federal Reserve would need to keep raising interest rates to tamp down inflation, a process that will put a strain on companies that require easy access to capital markets to survive. 
Meanwhile, Trennert doesn't expect the Fed to back off its elevated interest rates next year, as it will need to hold higher rates in order to decisively defeat inflation. He noted that a slowing economy will also drag on the stock market.

For more on earnings season and Fed policy, see if an earnings warning from Walmart (WMT) will be enough to slow the central bank's rate-hiking campaign.