Analyst Outlines 'Three Phases' of Bull Market

Rod Smyth, chief investment strategist for Wachovia Securities, told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” that he doesn’t expect the market to slow “in the foreseeable future.”

He said the current bull market is liquidity-driven.

“Bull markets fall in three phases,” Smyth said. “You get a recovery phase when people are nervous. You then get an earnings phase when earnings come through. Eventually when optimism really builds, you get an exuberance phase, and the market starts to take off faster than the earnings are growing. It’s fun when it runs –- you want to buy the breakouts -– but you’ve got to recognize that usually when the exuberance phase is over, you have to have some sort of correction. We don’t see that happening in the foreseeable future, but it’s out there.”

Fritz Meyer, senior investment officer for AIM Investments, said market fundamentals are sound.

“The steady march higher we’ve seen here for approximately eight weeks has been driven, we believe, by very solid underlying fundamentals,” Meyer said. “I don’t think valuations are stretched. I think there’s potential for the market to move higher between here and year-end.”