I'm currently taking advanced economics so I have been investing a lot in the market lately.
Big companies doing good for me:
Intel (INTC), Oracle (ORCL), Microsoft (MSFT), Fannie Mae (FNM) and Google (GOOG). Yesterday was a horrible day for the market but Fannie Mae went up like 14 percent so I still gained. I just sold it today, though-- I don't trust this crazy housing market.
It's probably too late now but Beer companies (BUD, STZ) are great stocks for Q1-Q2, however, factoring in rational expectations, it's probably too late.
Don't be afraid to use your consumer knowledge to help investments(market saturation/favorite companies), but remember to check out their trends. If you screw up, it's okay, we're in a recession, and your stocks will eventually go back up.
It's a large, complicated market, and it helps a lot more if you have some background in econ, but you can still do okay if you don't. Good luck!