U.S. equity markets in general are very expensive, while Japanese and European equity markets offer better investing opportunities, according to a panel of three investment strategists speaking at the Envestnet Advisor Summit in Chicago on Wednesday.

Heidi Richardson, global investment strategist at BlackRock, said her firm is overweight in Japan, and it also sees core European countries such as Germany performing well. The quantitative easing policy taken by the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank are weighing on those regions’ currencies and helping with their exports, she said.

“The QE program by the ECB is positive for the European equity markets and could be a good tailwind for countries like Germany,” she said.

Richardson said she would still avoid peripheral European countries like Greece that continue to deal with economic problems.

Most U.S. sectors, such as utilities, remain expensive, she said.

Part of the problem, she said, is that “there is no bad news priced in,” thus markets can become volatile after any news. For example, equities reacted last year to the Ebola virus outbreak in Africa (and the few cases in the United States), something the stock market would normally not have noticed.

“Now you don’t hear anyone talking about Ebola,” she said.

Richardson added that bond-like proxies such as real estate investment trusts will do poorly in 2015, as they have recently, in anticipation of a Federal Reserve rate hike.

Panelist Larry Adam, chief investment strategist at Deutsche Asset Management, agreed that valuations in the U.S. remain rich, but said that even though REITs may have a negative correlation with rising rates, they are still a worthwhile investment in the longer term.

“If you pan back and see why rates are rising, it’s because economic growth is happening,” Adam said.

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