Most economists agree that we’ve now been in a recession for a year. So now the question is, what sectors of the economy are going to be the “ones to be in” when things turn upward.

Certain sectors will lead us out of this mess and you need to know which ones they are so that you can invest in stocks that will go up as the economy improves. This way you will get an “earlier start” than others in the recovery of your account balance which means you will get in before stock prices start going up.

Here are 6 sectors of the stock market that you should keep an eye on as the economy starts picking up:

Transportation

When a company feels that the economy is just about to come out of a slump, they order more products for the consumer to buy…Those products have to be “transported”. This is why transportation stocks pick up at the beginning of an economic recovery and sometimes even a bit before the recovery happens.

Technology

Another thing companies beef up on is technology. If you can do more work, more efficiently…then you can take in more profits with the same level of employees. Since employees are one of their biggest costs, they try to hold off on the hiring process until the recovery is underway.

Services

As the economy gets back rolling once again, consumers and corporations both use more services. This means they are once again willing to pay someone else for something they formerly did for themselves or felt they could do without at the time.

Commodities

Then later on as times improve, businesses and home owners want to expand their operations or homes and so that puts a demand upon the materials sector of the economy. This is where commodities shine. They start really kicking in the most towards the latter stages of a bull market in stocks.

Energy

Hence, the next category…energy. You will find that oil in particular really gets its “second wind” right at the latter stages of a bull market. The economy has expanded a lot and is more of a demand upon the energy supplies, thus causing the price to spike higher.

Financial

Right before an economic upturn, remember we said that businesses stock up on inventories? Well, these are typically financed on the front end and then paid off once the inventories are worked down. Thus this calls for the need for a wave of lending which helps the banks.

So what does this all mean to me? It means that as the economy starts turning around, you want to invest in market sectors that will benefit. Historically, sectors that have benefited include transportation, technology, service, commodities, energy and financial. You may want to own a “basket” of these through mutual funds or ETFs that focus on these sectors of the economy.