"Many are speculating that we’ve found the end of the tunnel, now we just need to figure out how to turn around and start walking towards the light."

Much to the detriment of a host of wire services, cable news providers and the media in general, we have nothing but positive things to report about when examining the performance of the Product Design & Development Stock Index over the past week. Every category was up and the index itself improved better than 30 points as a whole. In particular:

• The Military/Aerospace index reversed a negative $8.92 showing last week with gains of over 7.5 points.
• The Automotive index was about flat, but still positive with an overall gain of $0.20 versus last week.
• The Medical sector registered the second largest positive showing, reversing a negative $9.11 posting from last week with gains over 10 points.
• Industrial was up better $1.50 on the whole, thanks to gains by Rockwell (ROK) and Grainger (GWW).
• The Consumer Electronics index led the way, with cumulative gains of over $14, a huge reversal from the -$16.88 posting of last week.

Although each sector is yet to truly compensate for the huge losses suffered in the last quarter of 2008, these improvements do show signs of life in the economy. Many are speculating that we’ve found the end of the tunnel, now we just need to figure out how to turn around and start walking towards the light.

The biggest gains and loses:

• Lockheed Martin (LMT) and Boeing (BA) posted gains of $3.68 and $2.86, respectively.
• Raytheon (RTN) down $1.57.
• Automotive supplier Federal-Mogul (FDML) up nearly a dollar ($0.96) from last week.
• Zimmer (ZMH), a medical implant provider, and Steris (STE), which specializes in products that control infections, led the medical sector with gains of $2.93 and $2.42, respectively.
• As mentioned previously, Rockwell saw gains of $0.83 over last week and Grainger’s stock improved by $1.57.
• The Consumer Electronics index was bolstered by Apple’s nearly 11-point surge, but hindered by negative postings from Sony (SNE) of -$1.47, Nokia (ADR) -$0.64 and Microsoft (MSFT) -$1.23 

In total, the PD&D Index was up from 1287.22 (excuse last week’s mathematical miscalculation of 1286.73) to 1321.28 this week.