With the market continuing to avoid giving any definitive answers about its next direction, we’re once again forced to dig deep into the bucket to find some actionable sector ideas. In fact, even the sectors are a bit waffly right now, leaving us to rely on the individual industries to spot hot and cold spots.

Bear in mind these ideas are not based on charts. Rather, they’re based on relative strength -- which index has put up the best or worst performance over the last X number of days? The strategy is to look at relative strength first, and then the charts.

Here are the top three and bottom three industries over the last week, and then over the last month. Where merited, we’ve also included charts below. Just don’t be shocked if we seem to take an anti-trend position if we see more bearish opportunity in a certain industry. The purpose of the relative strength study is just to find a mover/shaker.

Top/Bottom Three Performing Industries – One Week


Top/Bottom Three Performing Industries – One Month


See a common theme? Precious metals are getting crushed. Telecom seems to be perking up though. Automobile’s may be perking up again, and perhaps in a similar vein, the truck manufacturers are doing something. I’m semi-curious to see aluminum perform well side-by-side with heavy construction. Is there an obscure firming in that arena buried under all the housing chatter? We’ll save that argument for another time.

In the meantime, let’s look at precious metals, telecom, and truck/car-makers. Maybe there’s a new trend in place. Or, maybe the recent volatility has just set up a big reversal move.

Gold & Silver

Things may not be quite as bad as the numbers would make them seem. These stocks seem to be stuck more in a trading range than starting a meltdown. In the longer-term, there’s actually an uptrend still intact, despite the small pullback.

Gold & Silver – Weekly


Automobile & Truck Manufacturers

We’ve actually been bullish on this group for a while, and haven’t been disappointed. We can see the recent strength is the result of a gap. We can also see these stocks have been all over the map of late. However, these past few weeks may just be a consolidation before the next leg higher. A move above February’s highs would go far in convincing the rest of the market to plow in again, but this appears to be an upside opportunity.

Automobile & Truck Manufacturers – Daily


Telecom

This chart speaks for itself. Long-term and/or short-term, these stocks are on a mission. By the way, telecom earnings are expected to grow faster than any other sector’s earnings in 2007.

Telecom - Daily


Price Headley is the founder and chief analyst of BigTrends.com.