European markets today are positioned much like U.S. markets were three years ago, creating a new sense of optimism overseas, an analyst said Wednesday.

“They are seeing economic strength and earnings growth and with cheap valuations,” RiverFront Investment Group’s Doug Sandler said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.”

A recent shift in the European political landscape is causing Sandler’s firm to shift money internationally, as he said there are “simply better opportunities overseas.” However, Asian markets lack the same luster for Sandler, even as China may continue to develop as a source of global growth.

Meanwhile, Stephanie Link of TIAA Global Asset Management believes the ebb-and-flow of the overall market has been the biggest surprise in the U.S.

“There are such big moves that if you’re not involved in some of these sectors that really take off, you get left behind,” Link said on “Closing Bell.”

Link sees health care as the sector with the most room to grow, largely due to technology growth money flowing into biotechnology stocks and other health care companies. Link does not see the Republican health care reform proposed in the Senate on Wednesday as a threat to the sector, and said “the whole gamut of health care is what’s so interesting – it’s broadening out.”

That movement between the sectors means the current market environment is about “sticking with the winners,” Ian Winer of Wedbush Securities said. Current speculation makes Winer nervous, even if that “rampant” speculation is “really happening outside the stock market,” he said.