The US is in a 'rolling recession' but financials and retail stocks have repriced and present opportunities, Morgan Stanley's chief stock strategist says

• Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson said the US is in a rolling recession but opportunities exist in stocks still.
• In an interview with Bloomberg, the chief strategist explains why financials and retail look attractive.

The US economy is facing a host of economic headwinds that threaten to tip it into a recession, but Morgan Stanley's top strategist says there are still opportunities for investors in some corners of the stock market.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV this week, Mike Wilson said some companies in sectors like consumer retail and financials have "repriced in a meaningful way," and could present opportunities.

The bank just added both mega retailer Walmart (WMT) and consumer products company Colgate-Palmolive (CL) to its Fresh Money Buy List, which is a compilation of some of the firm's "best near-term risk-reward stock ideas that stand on their own merit."

"Markets go through these periods I call a rolling bear market [or] rolling recession," Wilson told Bloomberg on Monday. "We're looking for opportunities now [at] the stock level, but at the index level it just does not look attractive to us."

Wilson noted this week that the stock market is facing the highest risk of downside in the past year, adding that investors shouldn't be fooled by the rally in sectors like tech.

"Given the events of the past few weeks, we think guidance is looking more and more unrealistic, and equity markets are at greater risk of pricing in much lower estimates ahead of any hard data changes," he said separately in a research note on Monday.

The chief stock strategist, who previously sounded the alarm on the worst earnings recession since 2008, has been steadily bearish in recent months. Wilson has said US stocks have surged too high and are now in a "death zone," estimating that the S&P 500 could crash as much as 26% within months.