The vast majority of questions advisors and investors today are asking Charles Schwab's chief market strategist Liz Ann Sonders and chief global strategist Jeff Kleintop revolve around varying aspects of financial fear, the pair said this morning as the custodian presented its annual market outlook for 2015 in New York City. The prevalence of fear in the questions they keep hearing is one reason both offered relatively optimistic views for equities next year.

Sonders reiterated her opinion that this is a secular bull market that began in 2009. The kind of "ferocious" upward moves U.S. equities have displayed over the last five and a half years are not characteristic of cyclical bull markets.

Asked what her biggest fear was, Sonders said it would be a stock market "melt-up." Those who wish for the bull market to extend its longevity should root for a few more corrections like the one witnessed in early October of this year.

She also warned that there could be downside lurking out there. For example, when the stock market crashed in ashort  few weeks in 1987, it occurred in the middle of the longest secular bull market in history, which ran from 1982 to 2000. Prior to collapsing nearly 35% in October 1987, the S&P 500 had climbed more than 40% by August of that year, as it rose 22% in the first quarter alone.

Both Sonders and Kleintop detected a slightly schizophrenic attitude among investors. On the one hand, most sentiment indicators are near all-time highs. On the other hand, when the two speak to advisors and investors across the country, more than 90% of the questions they receive express fear.

Kleintop said he expects 2015 to be a positive year of gains driven by revenue growth as the global economy improves. Aside from the U.S. and the U.K., which might raise interest rates next year, other economies are engaging in aggressive fiscal and monetary stimulus.

"Austerity is dead," he declared. "Germany lost the battle over the French and Italian budgets." The latter two nations are both cutting taxes.

Sonders noted that U.S. government spending will increase as well next year, marking the first time in several years austerity won't be a drag on U.S. growth.

Consumer spending, which has declined from 72% of GDP in 2007 to 68% today, remains modest when compared with that of past recoveries, and Sonders isn't expecting that to change. Both consumers and corporations should get a lift from lower oil prices. She expects the capital spending sector "to kick in" and lead the next leg of the recovery. Schwab's two favorite sectors are industrials and technology.

Looking around the globe, Kleintop said he favors American and emerging markets' equities at present, though he thinks European shares might start to perform better in the second half of 2015 as stimulative policies breath life into its weak economies. Meanwhile, many emerging market indexes are sellin at 10 or 11 times earnings, far below markets in most developed nations.

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