Sectors

Quantitatively, we have found that option trading volumes provide good, contrarian information on investor sentiment toward market groups.

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Although the markets continued to trend higher for much of the month, the steep losses on February 27th reminded us all again what a good dose of market volatility felt like. Feel better now?

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Many of the broad market indexes climbed to new cyclical highs in late-December, confirming that 2007 is almost certain to begin with a bull market still in command.

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Small caps bolted out of the gates early in the month, ending November with gains that were ahead of the large cap indexes.

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Sentiment measures still show pessimism among investors. Doug Ramsey looks at the current sentiment gauges for the market and also examines the current sentiment readings for 24 broad industries groups.

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The stock market’s turbocharged advance continued into October, putting YTD performance for the majority of broad market indexes into the double-digits.

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Perhaps if you were living in some obscure quarter of the Amazon jungle for the last month, you may not have heard the news that the Dow Jones Industrials Average was approaching and finally achieved a new all-time high in late-September and early October.

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S&P 500 is now within striking distance of hitting new cyclical highs.

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Review of profit margins by broad sector show very little contraction since we last published this work a year ago. Margins have expanded in Energy, Materials, and Health Care sectors, while there has been contraction in Consumer Staples and Information Technology.

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In July, weakness early in the month later transitioned into a comeback rally of sorts for the major stock market indexes.

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Which S&P sectors have the most cash, and how may it be put to use?

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For the first time since the market low in March 2003, many investors got a chance to remember what a good old fashioned correction felt like.

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“Sell in May, then go away” goes that old piece of Wall Street wisdom. Problem is, this year everybody seemed to sell in May, so going away doesn’t seem like such a good idea anymore.

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The big stories driving the day to day market action in April continued to be (in no particular order) the future of Fed policy, oil prices, the economy, and escalating tensions with Iran. However, despite the various uncertainties and vagaries regarding the aforementioned, many stock market indexes hit cyclical bull market highs during the month.

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Stocks continued to move higher in the first quarter, with many of the broad market indexes finishing out Q1 near their cyclical highs.

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Energy sector earnings growth has helped keep overall S&P earnings advancing at a relatively strong rate. Growth would be about 9% to 10% below reported growth if Energy stocks were excluded.

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For the month of February, the majority of broad stock market indexes ended roughly where they began.

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Although the performance hurdle had not been set very high, many of the stock market indexes posted gains in January that beat (or rivaled) the gains for the entire year of 2005.

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The end of year marked the third consecutive year of positive returns for the stock market, even though they were hardly the kind of gains that we saw in the earlier stages of the current recovery phase for stocks.

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Back at the end of October, virtually all of the primary stock market indexes were slightly underwater on a YTD basis, but November’s market action changed all that with an impressive rally.

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