799 stocks

28th chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Chris Cox was appointed by Dubyah in 2005. If he hadn't removed time proven protections like enforcement against naked shorts and the uptick rule, there would have been no need for the dangerous precedent of a 2-week ban on the short-selling of 799 stocks. I agree with analysts, senators and pundits that this man is a loose cannon. What will he do next?

3Q

The outperforming sectors of 3Q were Consumer Discretionary (automobiles and components, consumer durables, apparel, hotels, restaurants, leisure, media, and retailing) and Health Care (equipment & supplies, providers & services, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals).  The big loser was Energy, down 15%.

2Q end

The commodities boom of 2008 is the rocket that successful stocks rode in the first two quarters of the year (which end today). Energy commodities like NatGas and Crude were the easiest for companies to profit from because they're able to quickly pass their costs on to the consumer at the pump/meter/etc.

A good chart to review at the end of every quarter is SPDR Performance. The only sectors of the S&P500 that aren't losing money are (you guessed): Energy and Materials (chemicals, construction materials, containers, metals & mining, paper & forest products). And the stinker of the sectors? financial.

Now, was it really hard to predict this?