US valuations make sense if you focus on business not politics: Asset manager - CNBC

Taking a less benign view of matters, Erik Nielsen, global chief economist for Unicredit, told CNBC Monday that he was worried on several fronts about the incoming administration and how the equity markets were embracing the January change-of-guard.

"There is a tendency now when the market has started to rally that people have picked from the big arsenal of statements and tweets that Trump puts out to believe the ones you would like to believe and dismiss the others," he observed.

As examples, Nielsen said investors seemed to believe that Trump would deliver a big, workable fiscal package and that his less growth-friendly suggestions, such as trade restrictions and throwing out illegal immigrants, would be jettisoned.

He accused investors of blindly only believing what suited them and cautioned, "That's always a dangerous cocktail."

McCaughan was in agreement about investors' assessment,saying "the market is assuming that the new administration will be more pragmatic than some of the campaign talk."

He also acknowledged the risks to this stance.

"That may be a dangerous assumption but for the moment it appears to be the likely outcome. We have to watch for anything that changes that."

As an additional concern, Unicredit's Nielsen said given where the U.S. was in terms of the economic cycle, it was not a normal time to pursue fiscal stimulus.

"Is it actually going to fuel the economy to the extent that people think? I have my doubts this late in the cycle," he asserted.

While praising the president-elect for the business experience and achievements of his economic picks, Nielsen also sought to draw the distinction between business and economics.

"As an economist you would have liked to have seen someone with economy policy making background … Running a business is not exactly the same as running public policy."

According to Nielsen, it is difficult to guess what the team will do given they do not have a track record of creating or writing about economic policy.

"Uncertainty is a very big part of my concern here."