Friday Sector Leaders: Services, Materials

Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Friday, shares of Services companies are outperforming other sectors, higher by 1.1%. Within that group, Ross Stores Inc (Symbol: ROST) and Dollar General Corp (Symbol: DG) are two of the day's stand-outs, showing a gain of 8.9% and 4.2%, respectively. Among the largest ETFs, one ETF closely following services stocks is the iShares U.S. Consumer Services ETF (Symbol: IYC), which is up 1.2% on the day, and up 4.55% year-to-date. Ross Stores Inc, meanwhile, is up 4.05% year-to-date, and Dollar General Corp is up 7.45% year-to-date. Combined, ROST and DG make up approximately 1.4% of the underlying holdings of IYC.

The next best performing sector is the Materials sector, up 1.0%. Among large Materials stocks, Albemarle Corp. (Symbol: ALB) and International Paper Co (Symbol: IP) are the most notable, showing a gain of 3.3% and 2.8%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Materials stocks is the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLB), which is up 0.8% in midday trading, and up 7.16% on a year-to-date basis. Albemarle Corp., meanwhile, is down 11.80% year-to-date, and International Paper Co is up 28.15% year-to-date. Combined, ALB and IP make up approximately 3.0% 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, nine sectors are up on the day, while none of the sectors are down.

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Also see:

• BC Price Target
• ETFs Holding IDTI
• JFBR shares outstanding history