The Dividend Guy Blog had a recent entry about whether recent gains in the market are a good or bad thing.

If you have some of the same concerns or that the market dip today will continue, I found this from some research from Thomson Financial: best long terms earnings growth by sectors in the S&P 500 since 1980 (highest returns by % to lowest):

1. Health Care
2. Consumer Staples
3. Financials
4. Industrials
5. Consumer Discretionary
6. Materials
7. Energy
8. Technology
9. Telecom
10. Utilities

The sample size is long enough to give you a good track record of industries that will grow year over year no matter what the state of the economy. Interesting to note that energy is #7 and the recent market gains/losses are being fueled by the energy sector (pun intended).