Stocks Open '09 With Rally

Statistically, the first five trading days often provide clues to the trends for the year, says Quincy Krosby, chief investment strategist for Hartford. Still, as with any statistics, there are always outliers, she says. (In the first five days of trading in 2008, the Dow fell 672.75 points, or 5%.)

The market rose despite the fact that signs of the economic downturn continued to register around the globe. In the U.S., the Institute for Supply Management, a private trade group of purchasing executives, said that none of the manufacturing industries it surveys reported growth in December. Its national manufacturing index fell to 32.4% in December from 36.2% in November, the lowest reading since June 1980.

A reading above 50% indicates that the manufacturing economy is generally expanding, and below that, a contraction. If the index for December is annualized, it corresponds to a 2.7% decrease in real GDP annually, according to the report.

"It's bad," says Krosby. "It shows you how quickly the situation deteriorated, and it matches with some of the other data that indicates a decline came very quickly."

Not to put a silver lining on it, Krosby says, "but if you are able to instill confidence, if there's to be any upswing in terms of demand either through tax stimulus or spending programs enacted by the new administration, these numbers will start to shift."

In the U.K, the number of nonfood retailers who closed their doors rose 21.2% to more than 1,100 in 2008, according to a report by Experian. Britain is likely to see 1,400 more vendorsgo out of business in 2009, with an estimated one in 10 stores remaining empty, according to the report.