With blue-chip stocks basically flat for 2015 in an extremely volatile year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is poised motor higher, Heritage Capital's Paul Schatz told CNBC on Thursday.
"We've had three-month consolidation. [Investors] have digested a lot of geopolitical news. The time is now. I think the Dow breaks out to the upside. I think we see all-time highs this month. And for my work, five closes above 18,000 … [will begin] a slingshot right to 20,000," he predicted in a "Squawk Box" interview.
The Heritage Capital president and CIO makes a case of the strong dollar leading to capital coming to the United States, first in dollars, then "some Treasurys," and eventually blue-chip stocks.
Schatz also sees U.S. stocks benefiting from the accommodative measures of central banks around the world, even as the Federal Reserve considers whether to start raising interest rates from their near zero levels.
The Fed says one thing and does another, he argued. "Behind closed doors, they fear normalization significantly."
Boris Schlossberg, managing director of foreign exchange strategy at BK Asset Management, said he expects the Fed to make a 25 basis point move, "if not June, then definitely September," and then wait to see what happens.
"I've been arguing all this is symbolic. There's no reason to hike rates. Inflation is very, very low," he said. "The U.S. economy seems to be really pulling away from the rest of the world. It's unambiguously good."
Tom Lee, co-founder and head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, said he expects the Fed to begin hiking rates in late 2015 or early 2016.
Against that backdrop, Lee said, "We think the can still produce double-digit gains [to] 2,325, by the year of the end."
Such a move would represent a gain of nearly 12.5 percent from Wednesday's close of 2,068 on the S&P, which like the Dow has seen tremendous swings that have amounted to basically a flat year so far.