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?
-