Hard to believe the first quarter of 2009 is already in the books; however, the markets did not make that time boring. It was definitely a hard task to find stocks to buy in 2009, but, with solid price entries in place, I am pretty confident with where they stand.

Overall all 4 stocks combined for -8.9%. Dow: -13.33% | S&P 500: -11.67% | Nasdaq: -3.07%
Using our designated entry targets all 4 stocks combined for +14% (buy not hit for AKS of BAC yet).

Before we get into the actual stocks, lets look back at what I expected in 2009:

Barack Obama will officially take office. The stock market did not participate on inauguration day, but over the last couple of weeks investors have gotten giddy over the possibilities. Because there is no substance there, this leaves me to worry that any gains made thus far may be quickly gone if we don’t take our profit.

According to history, the average global recession is 1.5 years, so we should be out somewhere near July. Just last week that time was pushed back to the end of 2009. What will they say when that time comes around?

Many companies have practiced the forget till new year policy, so the beginning of 2009 could be shaky to say the least. Expect direction of market to be unclear for the first 3-6 months of the year. Anybody could of guessed this. Slowly but surely we are still getting a big picture. Ideas are being digested right now. I feel confident that we should have a good grasp of where exactly things are heading in the next couple of months.

Now lets look at things I was hoping would benefit some stocks:

The price of oil has dropped so much. How much lower can it really go? It seems as though oil is posed to go higher. The chart is starting to round out, and we could be seeing higher prices come this summer.

The Dow was down roughly 35% for the year. While it could still go lower, predicting another 35% loss would be hard to imagine. For the year, the Dow is off 11% (thanks to a nice 2 week rally). It seems hard to believe that things could get even worse than they are to get to 35% come Christmas.

Lastly, remember the original goal of these picks were to find 4 stocks that would be hot in 2009. Obviously we still have 9 months to go, so stay patient.