US Markets

Sorry, but no Dow 19,000 in 2015: Hugh Johnson

Follow strength or laggards?
VIDEO1:4401:44
Follow strength or laggards?

In just more than a year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has blown through three 1,000-point levels, first cracking 16,000 in November 2013 and breaking through 18,000 this month.

So when will the Dow touch 19,000? Not in 2015, Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer at Hugh Johnson Advisors, told CNBC's "Power Lunch."

Read More Here's a look inside Ray Dalio's new strategy

Johnson admitted that he underestimated the market at the start of the year, but he said there is little that can propel U.S. equities at the pace investors saw in 2013 and 2014.

"I ask myself, 'What's really going to drive the market higher? How are we going to get 10 to 15 percent this year?' It's got to be earnings, and I don't see that. I see the growth rate of earnings coming down maybe to, say, 3 to 5 percent on the S&P 500 earnings," he said.

Rising interest rates will prevent price-to-earnings multiples from expanding, he said. That will result in a positive, but only "OK" year, with single-digit returns.

Read More Santa rally stealing some of next year's cheer

Scott Wren, senior equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors, said he too projects a merely "good" year, with the S&P returning 6 to 10 percent.

He advised sticking with large cap domestic stocks through the rest of the cycle.

"If I had to rank the performance, I'd say large cap U.S., international developed, and then emerging market comes in third place," he told "Power Lunch."