Lots of chatter about the market's lower low on 3/9 has many people missing what might be a much more significant picture. Many stocks did not participate in the decline earlier this year, and as a result have undergone huge rallies off their lows.
As an example, below we highlight the fifteen biggest market movers in the S&P 500 since 11/20/08 (excluded from this list are SGP and WYE because of takeovers). Since 11/20 Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Amazon.com have all doubled. Goldman and Amazon are probably most noteable because these were also noteable dollar changes.
The fifteen stocks shown have been responsible for nearly half of the S&P's 9.66% change during the period, and have averaged a gain of 48.59% across the group. We've also highlighted the number of tech stocks (eight out of the fifteen); which have been responsible for 27% of the market's total gain. It has been our contention that a strong bull market would not be lead by the health care sector - which was favored by most strategists at the end of 2008. If you are looking for leadership the list below might not be a bad place to start.