Halfway to 2010

The stock market has no doubt gotten off to a great start to the year.  With a year-to-date gain of 6.6% for the S&P 500, the market has already gained half of what it did for the entire year in 2010.  And some sectors are even getting close to surpassing their 2010 gains already.  The S&P 500 Technology sector gained 9.1% in 2010, and it's already up 8.4% this year.  The Financial sector is up 7.4% YTD versus a 2010 gain of 10.8%.

Energy has been the top performing sector in 2011 with a gain of 12.1%.  Last year the sector gained 17.9%.  The Industrials sector is up the second most in 2011 at 9.1%, but it still has a ways to go to catch up with its 2010 performance of +23.9%.  The top performing sector of 2010 -- Consumer Discretionary -- is lagging the overall market in 2011 with a gain of 6.4%.  And the other consumer sector -- Consumer Staples -- is barely up for the year at just +0.09%.  Is this weakness in the consumer sectors due to inflation concerns or just normal sector rotation within a bull market?