“They see estimates that had to come down just to get beaten,” Colas said on CNBC. “The bottom line, it is not just oil and not just currency. It is a slow U.S. economy dragging down corporate earnings and they’re looking to the first quarter to be the trough for the year. But at 18 times earnings … we’re looking at a pretty expensive market.”
However, Colas believes investors should consider mid- and small-cap stocks as these companies have less exposure to the U.S. dollar and “are much more fruitful.”
So far this year, the mid- and small-cap stocks have outperformed large-caps. For instance, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY) was up 2.9% year-to-date. Meanwhile, IJH rose 6.0%, MDY gained 5.9% and VO added 5.7% year-to-date. Looking at the small-cap funds, IJR increased 4.3%, VB returned 5.7% and IWM gained 5.4%.
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Max Chen contributed to this article.