One thing that most energy analysts can probably agree on is that oil and natural gas reserves aren't getting any easier to discover, or extract from the earth. The obstacles are only increasing, from the pure location of the natural resource, to the political barriers being established to wean ourselves off of our fossil fuel addiction. However, another notion I think most energy analysts can agree on is that fossil fuels will continue to play a vital role in fueling global growth for decades to come.

With that in mind, we have developed a longer-term structural theme in the energy services sector for clients in our opportunistic growth portfolio. It recaptured my attention today due to a notable outperformance in energy services ETFs vs. the rest of the market. This was more than likely due to the affirmation of a positive outlook from the energy analysts over at

The Energy sector ranks eighth out of the ten sectors as detailed in my Sector Rankings for ETFs and Mutual Funds report. It gets my Dangerous rating, which is based on aggregation of ratings of 18 ETFs and 73 mutual funds in the Energy sector as of April 23, 2013. Prior reports on the best & worst ETFs and mutual funds in every sector and style are here.

Figure 1 shows the five best and worst-rated ETFs and mutual funds in the sector. Not all Energy sector ETFs and mutual funds are created the same. The number of holdings varies widely (from 25 to 168), which creates drastically different investment implications and ratings. The best ETFs and mutual funds allocate more value to Attractive-or-better-rated stocks than the worst ETFs and mutual funds, which allocate too much value to Neutral-or-worse-rated stocks.

To identify the best and avoid the

Is the American consumer genuinely spending? While the combination of rising home prices and higher 401(k) values may contribute to a temporary wealth effect, higher payroll taxes may begin to exact a toll. Consider the curious case of SPDR Retail (XRT). Its year-to-date 16.2% haul is better than most large- and mid-cap benchmarks. Equally impressive, XRT has remained resilient, holding firmly above a near-term trendline.

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On the other hand, the volume on down days is a great deal heavier than the volume of shares traded on up days. What's more, 20% of XRT's assets under management have disappeared in less than one month's time. It seems that profit-taking investors are convinced that apparel, specialty and automotive retailers will struggle to generate revenue in the weeks ahead.

If retail falls into the area of discretionary spending, one might be more inclined to purchase the stock shares of