>>energy shares rarely lead in the early phases of a new bull market<<
By this, I assume you mean oil and gas prices, which I would agree with. However, oil and gas prices today are largely controlled by OPEC. If there were no production quotas, then the prices would fall in the short run, particularly because demand falls off somewhat (not as much as many people think) in an economic slump. In the current situation, however, OPEC member countries do NOT want to see prices fall below a certain point, and they've been able to discipline themselves well enough to provide production controls to prevent a price collapse. The current situation, moreover, is likely to produce sudden, artificial increases in demand in conjunction with some sort of military action that will likely be taken.
My point is that the price of oil is not as likely to fall below present levels as some people think, despite the slowing world economy. Lower oil prices have forced down the price of oil stocks, and I would really question whether the EXTENT to which they have dropped is justified, since oil prices are controlled enough to produce reasonable profits for the oil companies. Some of these stocks are off 30 percent. If their reserves are not very good quality, well I could understand that. But if their reserves are good (i.e., able to extract the oil at far less than the spot price), then the drop seems completely irrational.
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