Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Friday, shares of Energy companies are outperforming other sectors, higher by 3.2%. Within that group, Anadarko Petroleum Corp (Symbol: APC) and Pioneer Natural Resources Co (Symbol: PXD) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 32.6% and 11.0%, respectively. Among energy ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLE), which is up 0.6% on the day, and up 19.10% year-to-date. Anadarko Petroleum Corp, meanwhile, is up 42.23% year-to-date, and Pioneer Natural Resources Co is up 27.57% year-to-date. Combined, APC and PXD make up approximately 4.8% of the underlying holdings of XLE.
The next best performing sector is the Materials sector, up 1.3%. Among large Materials stocks, Dow Inc (Symbol: DOW) and Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold (Symbol: FCX) are the most notable, showing a gain of 5.5% and 3.4%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Materials stocks is the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLB), which is up 1.3% in midday trading, and up 15.47% on a year-to-date basis. Dow Inc, meanwhile, is up 16.31% year-to-date, and Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold is up 34.53% year-to-date. Combined, DOW and FCX make up approximately 9.8% of the underlying holdings of XLB.
Comparing these stocks and ETFs on a trailing twelve month basis, below is a relative stock price performance chart, with each of the symbols shown in a different color as labeled in the legend at the bottom:
Here's a snapshot of how the S&P 500 components within the various sectors are faring in afternoon trading on Friday. As you can see, seven sectors are up on the day, while one sector is down.
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