Europe now represents more fertile territory for stock investors than the United States does, says Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management.

The STOXX Europe 600 Index has gained 10 percent so far this year, compared with 20 percent for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.

"I think for the near-term, Europe, given the 'less bad' news, is probably going to be more of a rally than the U.S.," Doll told CNBC.

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U.S. stocks will likely trade without direction in the near term, and ultimately need better fundamentals to push them higher, he said.

"In my view, the next move up requires stronger revenue and earnings growth," Doll explained. "I think we'll get it, but the jury is out and it's not a done deal."

For the 87 percent of S&P 500 companies that had reported second-quarter earnings as of last week, earnings per share averaged an increase of 4.1 percent, compared with 1.9 percent in the first quarter, according to Bloomberg. Revenue gained an average of 1.7 percent in the second quarter, compared with a decrease of 0.8 percent in the first quarter.

"The P/E [price-earnings] move, which has been pretty significant, is largely in the rear-view mirror," Doll said, referring to U.S. stocks soaring without strong earnings gains.

"Fundamentals will now matter," he added.

Others agree that U.S. stocks require better fundamental news to rise further.

"We probably need another leg to build on to before this market can get higher," Bill Schultz, chief investment officer at McQueen Ball & Associates, told Bloomberg.

"We need evidence of that, and this retail sales number doesn't give you that feeling that things really turned robustly higher." Retail sales rose 0.2 percent in July, the government announced Tuesday.

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