Since bottoming at the end of August 2010, the stock market has traded in pretty much one direction: higher. This is especially true for the S&P 500, which amazingly has had only 3 down weeks during that time period. Two of those down weeks occurred in November, and one in September, which meant the S&P 500 was up every single week in October and December of last year. So far it’s up 3 straight weeks to start 2011, assuming it closes higher this week.
A few market sectors have sailed about as smooth as the S&P 500 during this run, with very few down weeks. These include energy, consumer discretionary, technology, and broker-dealers. If investing just stayed this easy forever, we could all retire early!
