It's been five years since the S&P 500 index bottomed on March 9, 2009.
The benchmark index for broad stock market closed at 676.53 that day and is now pushing 1,900 for a roughly 170% gain.
But as the old saying goes, it's a "market of stocks" and not a stock market. Those who have held an S&P 500 index (SPX) fund since March 2009 may have an exact 170% return, but those who have held individual equities know some stocks have performed very differently over the last five years.
I recently did some digging into the S&P components, looking for trends the highest fliers and the biggest losers since the bear market lows.
And I found three sectors that have done heroically well since the bull market began... and three sectors that decidedly have not.
Here they are:
Hero: bank stocks
Think bank stocks are worse off after the global economy imploded five years ago? Well, think again.
Some of the highest fliers in the S&P 500 since the bear market bottom are financials. Wells Fargo(WFC) is up almost 300% and Bank of America(BAC) is up about 450%... but those aren't even close to the biggest gainers.
Mortgage insurance provider Genworth(GNW) is up 1,700% since the lows, and regional bank Fifth Third (FITB) is up a staggering 1,650% including dividends.
How can this be? Well, part of it is a snap-back as investors figured the risk was worth the reward after deep sell- offs, and started to nibble at banks again in 2009 and increasingly over the last few years and things settled. Part of it is the massive consolidation in banks and mouths to feed in the sector, as illustrated by the fact that we now have the fewest number of financial institutions since the Great Depression thanks to mergers and bank failures over the last few years.
And of course, part of it is because all that bailout cash saved even the unworthy, and because easy money from the Federal Reserve has been sitting in giant piles on the balance sheets of banks. Nice work if you can get it.
Wimp: miners
It has been an ugly few years for commodity prices for a host of reasons. There's weaker demand from China, there's a persistently strong dollar keeping commodities cheap and there's been a glut of oversupply for many materials as a result.
One such area is coal. Obama's policies have been very unfriendly to big coal, and China's flattening growth and increased focus on pollution has resulted in big pain for coal companies -- chief among them is Peabody (BTU) which is actually in the red since March 9, 2009, despite a roaring rally for the S&P.
Another area is gold mining. Newmont (NEM) is down almost 30% even including its dividends, thanks to a collapse in gold prices that hasn't only affected the bottom line but dramatically affected sentiment towards miners. The fact that its copper business continues to suffer only makes things worse.
Whether you want to blame China demand or a strong dollar or the end of a "supercycle" or some combination of all three, the result is a very hostile market for miners of commodities.
Hero: health care
Health-care stocks have benefited from a great one-two punch over the last few years. The first is a demographic shift brought on by aging baby boomers increasing demand for medical treatment. And the second, like it or lump it, is the extension of health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. "Obamacare") that has provided more patients access to treatments.
One stock that has benefitted from the tailwind is insurer UnitedHealthGroup (UNH) , up 360% including dividends. Another is health care IT firm Cerner(CERN) , up 560% since the bear market lows.
But perhaps some of the biggest and fastest-moving winners have been in biotech.
It's a tricky thing to plot five-year returns for biotech, since a host of these companies have been sucked up in bigtime buyouts. But one good example that's still on the market (for now) is Regeneron (REGN) , which has exploded 2,700% since the 2009 lows thanks in part to a new macular degeneration treatment, Eylea.
From the insurance to the treatments to the technology, clearly health care has been a big winner in the last few years.
Wimp: brick & mortar retail
The pressures of weaker consumer spending during the Great Recession caused the initial pain, but the constant squeeze from e-commerce has been unrelenting and ultimately has led to big problems for brick and mortar retail.
Best Buy (BBY) and Staples(SPLS) are the most obvious. These S&P components have both sat out the rally, with Best Buy(BBY) barely breaking even, thanks to dividends, since 2009 and with Staples(SPLS) soundly in the red over the last five years.
And just because J.C. Penney(JCP) was booted from the S&P in 2013 doesn't mean it should escape criticism. The stock is down over 30% since March 9, 2009 including its now-suspended dividend.
Lest you think the troubles are behind them, take note of the big move down for Staples(SPLS) just last week on ugly earnings and store closures and the similar tanking of Best Buy(BBY) since January after miserable holiday sales. And while J.C. Penney(JCP) has fared better thanks to a short squeeze, let's not celebrate a company that reported $19.9 billion in sales for 2007 but couldn't top $12 billion in revenue last year.
Hero: e-commerce
Connecting the dots with the pain for brick and mortar stores, Amazon.com(AMZN) is up over 500% since the March 9, 2009 lows. So while old-school retail is hurting, clearly there is still big money to be made. Competitor eBay(EBAY) is up over 450%, too.
And it's not just the big guys with broad retail reach, either.
Online travel has been on a tear. One of the highest fliers in the S&P 500 is Priceline.com(PCLN) with its massive 1,640% return since the bear market bottom while rival Expedia(EXPE) is sitting on a 1,100% return.
And a few smaller specialty plays have had it pretty darn good, too. Outside the S&P index, online photo ordering service Shutterfly(SFLY) is up 590% since March 2009. And emerging markets play Mercadolibre(MELI) is up 600% since then.
The market gives as well as it takes away. And while brick and mortar has suffered, e-commerce is certainly a big success story since the Great Recession.
Wimp: energy
I just came down on Big Oil in a recent column, and the underperformance of many S&P components bears out the reason to be pessimistic about the energy sector.
Some of the worst performers in the index since March 9, 2009, include drillers Transocean(RIG) and Diamond Offshore(DO) . While Transocean(RIG) certainly had liability from the Deepwater Horizon spill to blame for part of its woes, the broader issue was expensive-to-access deepwater oil supplies coupled with relatively soft crude prices. There just wasn't as much incentive to drill given the PR disaster and weaker margins.
Another sector ripe with underperformance: megautilities, including Excelon(EXC) and FirstEnergy(FE) . Despite seemingly robust dividend yields, both stocks have barely delivered any profits since the 2009 lows even including distributions. Particularly galling is Exelon(EXC), which actually slashed its payout 41% from 52.5 cents to 31 cents quarterly last year... so much for chasing yield and stability.
And what about Big Oil since 3/9/2009? The performance hasn't been as ugly, but is still pretty bad. Exxon (XOM) has a total return of just 65% including dividends -- grossly underperforming the S&P.
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