2007 Wasn't All Bad

That's it, 2007 is over. The brakes are on, the roller coaster has come to a complete stop, seat belts are off and we can get ready to sit back and click off the Dow points next year. If only it was that easy; however, 2007 wasn't all bad.

The S&P 500 finished up 3.5%. Apple (AAPL) added the most index points (11.06) with Exxon Mobil (XOM) slightly second adding 10.75 (Google (GOOG) was third adding only 5.89). Citigroup (C) stripped the most points off the index, -14.74 during the year, with Bank of America (BAC) second accounting for -6.1. In the end the S&P 500 gained 50 index points, thanks mostly to energy and technology.

The energy sector finished the year up over 32.4%, nearly doubling every other sector's gains. The big winners were the Oil Equipment and Services (Transocean Inc. (RIG), Haliburton (HAL), Schlumberger (SLB) and Baker Hughes (BHI) to name a few), the group was up 45.4%. Banks were the losers (Citi, Washington Mutual (WM) and other familiars), down over 32.5%. WaMu up 4.1% and Fannie Mae (FNM) up 4.3% suggests value plays for the new year, but who are we to speculate?

The table below details major S&P 500 sector and group performance for the year.

click to enlarge