Looking For the Next Sector to Boom? Try Energy

Now that the natural order of falling interest rates and rising stocks has (at least temporarily) been restored, it's tempting to just pick up where we left off in 1999 and jump back into the same old tech names.

But that would be fighting the last war. Instead, try following the money: Each cycle's biggest winners tend to come from industries where capital spending is rising. In the 1990s, that meant Internet infrastructure, but after Cisco's(CSCO Quote) inventory bombshell, it's hard to see this sector -- or B2B or telecom, for that matter -- leading the way anytime soon. There's simply too much bad news still to come.

A better bet is energy, where the supply/demand equation pretty much guarantees a string of great numbers. And within energy, a nearly certain capital magnet looks to be natural gas. ...