Stocks could get spooked by year-end

He called the October correction, and now that same money manager believes stocks are at risk for another leg lower.

According to Federated Investors’ Steve Chiavarone, last week’s midterm election was just one of three key events that could spook the markets again before year’s end.

He lists President Donald Trump’s meeting with President Xi Jinping on U.S.-China trade on Dec. 1, and the next Federal Reserve meeting as near-term hurdles. With the markets breaking below their 200-day moving averages in October, Chiavarone sees them in a weaker position to handle uncertainty generated by those events.

“We ultimately think markets are going to move higher into the back end of the year,” he said Friday on CNBC’s “Trading Nation. “But because we broke below those key technical levels, there is some risk of more downside, and we’re watchful of that.”

Chiavarone, who helps run the Federated Global Allocation Fund, maintains his long-term bullish outlook on stocks. He predicts by the end of 2019, the S&P 500 will reach 3,500, a 23 percent surge from current levels.

“We want to emphasize … that the long-term bull market remains in place,” he added. “The economy is growing, corporate earnings are growing, inflation remains benign, [and] we don’t think we have a Fed that is going to kill the economy.”