Paulsen, Long A Bull, Sees Trouble Ahead For US Stocks

While many are touting the advantages the US has on the rest of the world right now, Wells Capital’s Jim Paulsen says that he’ll be underweighting US equities in the New Year.

Paulsen has been bullish throughout the market’s nearly six year rally, but he tells CNBC that he thinks US stocks will be flat or negative in 2015.

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“There’s some really, really strong Wall Street consensus themes right now. And one of them is ‘the U.S. is the place to be,'” Paulsen tells CNBC. “Another one is ‘the dollar is only going to go up.’ The third one [is] ‘rates can stay lower for longer. I kind of think that 2015 might resolve in disappointing every one of those themes. I would tilt against them in portfolios.”

Paulsen says the foundation of the bull market “has been climbing a chronic wall of worry. That’s been the primary catalyst for this run.” But that’s now over, he says. He thinks a lot of the US economy’s improvement has been baked into stock prices already. And while the US is moving toward raising rates, other parts of the world like Japan and Europe are becoming more accommodative. He thinks their markets and currencies could do well in 2015.