The stock market has been fairly flat in 2015, but a jump in consumer spending and progress in the oil patch will move markets higher in the coming year, said Brad McMillan, CIO at Commonwealth Financial Network. ‘Companies are going to get through the headwinds,’ said McMillan. ‘The energy sector has been an enormous drag this year and will start to normalize. Similarly, the strong dollar will not go away, but we are not going to see a continued appreciation.’ McMillan said he is not afraid to go against the old Wall Street maxim and ‘fight the Fed’ if and when the Federal Reserve hikes lending rates in December. The likelihood of a rate increase rose Friday morning after it was announced that the U.S. added 211,000 jobs to payrolls in November, roughly in line with expectations. The report marks the last key data on the state of the labor market before the Federal Reserve meets Dec. 15th and 16th. The unemployment rate remained stable at 5% and average hourly earnings growth slowed to 0.2%. ‘In the early stage that means that the economy is growing,’ said McMillan. ‘It’s only in the later stages that raising rates becomes problematic. We are still in the sweet spot.’
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