Investors looking for U.S. equities to bottom out could be in for a long wait, Wells Fargo Securities' Gina Martin Adams said Wednesday.
"Three fundamental factors need to change," the firm's institutional equity strategist said in a CNBC "Power Lunch" interview. "It seems to be very clear that China and emerging markets, commodity prices and the Fed are all holding the market hostage at this point."
Adams added that U.S. stocks need better data coming from emerging markets, as well as the start of a bottom formation in Chinese equities and "a little bit of a recovery in the fall and winter months."
Chinese stocks have been taken for a ride recently, as worries over a slowdown in the country's economy have dragged down investors' sentiment.
Shanghai composite in last 6 months
The second factor in finding a bottom in U.S. equities lies in the commodity complex, Adams said.
"We need to see commodity prices bottom. Let's not forget, that's where this all started last summer. Commodity price weakness led to earnings weakness on the index and that has continued over this summer," she said.
Gold futures have fallen over 7 percent in the last year, while U.S. crude futures have shed about 50 percent of their value year over year.
WTI crude in the last year
"Finally, we need the Fed. Quite frankly, what the Fed did this month was really muddy the works for the market," she said.
Last week, the U.S. central bank kept interest rates at zero, raising the market's concerns over the U.S. economy.
"We have no visibility as to where the Fed is headed. We need some clarity on Fed policy just to relieve some of the concern," she added. "Until those three things happen, we won't see a bottom."
Investors searching for gains in these uncertain times should look outside of the U.S., said Hayes Miller, head of global investment strategy at Barings.
"When we look at Europe … we see more slack in the European economy, which allows profitability to grow, the opposite of the U.S.," Miller said in the same interview.
"With Japan, it's a little different dynamic. The ability for Kuroda to initiate another round of [quantitative and qualitative easing] probably allows us to extend the Abenomics projections out another year," Miller added.
European equities closed higher on Wednesday, with the FTSE 100 index rising nearly 2 percent, while the German DAX closed up 0.44 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell nearly 2 percent, tracking Chinese stocks.