Stocks seeing slow end to year but could surge in 2017

Markets were flat on Friday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent while the STOXX Europe 600 was little-changed.

"No one wants to take additional risk between now and the end of the year. They don't want to jeopardize those gains," said Stan Shipley, strategist at Evercore ISI.

Indeed, while many analysts see stocks moving higher in the remaining days of the year, most see gains being limited.

"The psychology seems to be setting up for a little bit of upward movement, not some strong 5 percent move. I think we could see a slow rise over the course of the rest of the year," said Don Townswick, head of equities at Conning.

For 2017 though, Nicholas Vardy, chief investment officer at Global Guru Capital, thinks that the US stock market could surge.

"First, the fog of the earnings recession in the S&P 500 has lifted," he said. "Second, U.S stocks have a strong recent history of outperforming in the first year of a presidency."