Stock investors should brace for volatility as stronger economic data may support the Fed's higher-for-longer view on interest rates, Goldman Sachs' chief equities strategist says

• Stock investors will be navigating through a choppy and challenging period after the Fed's Jackson Hole event, a top Goldman Sachs strategist told CNBC on Tuesday.
• Markets had rebounded as investors saw weaker data as evidence that interest rates and inflation had peaked, Goldman's chief global equity strategist Peter Oppenheimer said.

Stock market investors are entering a choppy period following the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole symposium and after a "premature recovery" from lows this summer, Goldman Sachs' chief global equity strategist Peter Oppenheimer said Tuesday on CNBC.

"We've had a period where markets have recovered a lot because they'd really been seeing bad news as good news — weaker data as evidence that interest rates have peaked and inflation has peaked," Oppenheimer said in an interview.

"But now I think we're moving into a bit more of a phase where investors will reassess that balance," he said a few days after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reinforced to the market the central bank's resolve in bringing down inflation that's sitting around a 40-year high.

Powell also said while the latest economic data have been mixed, he still sees strong underlying momentum in the economy.

The Fed has raised its benchmark fed funds rate four times this year to a range of 2.25% to 2.5%. At Jackson Hole, Powell signaled the possibility that interest rates will run higher for a longer period of time, a prospect that will weigh on equities, the Goldman Sachs strategist said.

"We've seen a bit of a premature recovery from the bear-market lows on the hopes that rates will come down. And this is going to enter a period of more choppy, challenging assessment of that balance between rates and growth."

The S&P 500 from its mid-June lows pared its year-to-date loss and the Nasdaq Composite exited out of a bear market. Stocks, however, on Tuesday were headed for a third straight losing session since Powell's speech on Friday.