Jamie Dlugosch

2008 Be Gone, We're Ready to Rock and Roll

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Jamie Dlugosch takes a look at the hottest topics to keep an eye on throughout the day.

The New Year party got off to an excellent start on Friday. 2008 be gone, we are ready to rock and roll.

The bulls kicked off the year in sluggish fashion. As I suggested before the market opened on Friday, traders were a bit sluggish returning to the Street after a holiday shortened end to the year. It took a few hours to remove the cob webs, but when clarity returned so too did the buying.

The Dow began its rally mid-day and didn't look back until near the close. When the market closed, investors booked a tidy profit of close to 3% on the Industrial index. The Dow gained 258 on the day after being up close to 300 points before the close.

The talking heads suggested that sector rotation was alive and well on Friday. Investors took available capital and did some wholesale buying of the groups that were out of favor in 2008.

Granted volume was light on this first day of trading in 2009, but the results were encouraging. I suspect there will be some powerful motivation to buy stocks during the first part of the year. Sustainability is in question. In other words will this first step forward last. We will know the answer shortly.

One of the out of favor sectors, surprisingly, was oil. The record gains in crude were a distant memory to a year that saw oil prices fall significantly. The first day of trading in the New Year reversed the fall. Crude closed above $46 on Friday.