Looking back at the past three months, the stock market has put on an even better fireworks show than many of us saw over the weekend. Among plenty of winners, though, one type of investment unexpectedly found itself ranking behind many of its peers -- and smart investors need to learn a valuable lesson from its temporary failure.

Investment research firm Lipper recently released mutual fund returns for two dozen fund categories that it tracked over the first half of 2009. Among the best performers were the following:

Category

1st-Half 2009 Return

Latin America

44.5%

China

37.2%

Science & Technology

24.6%

Basic Materials

22.9%

Gold

18.0%

Source: Lipper.

None of those results should come as a great shock to anyone who's followed the stock market during the first part of the year. In Latin America, companies like MercadoLibre (Nasdaq: MELI) and Petroleo Brasileiro (NYSE: PBR) have ridden the emerging-markets wave higher, as global investors look for places where economies will either continue to grow or at least not drop as far as those in the developed world. China's Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) more than doubled during the first half of 2009, and many other Chinese stocks put in impressive results.

Moreover, the companies that produce what those economies need to sustain their growth have also thrived. Miners like Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP) and BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) are cashing in on continuing demand from China and the rest of Asia, despite prices that are down substantially from last year's peak. Continued...