Monday Sector Leaders: Utilities, Materials

Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Monday, shares of Utilities companies are outperforming other sectors, higher by 0.7%. Within that group, AES Corp (Symbol: AES) and NiSource Inc. (Symbol: NI) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 3.2% and 2.0%, respectively. Among utilities ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLU), which is up 0.5% on the day, and up 12.71% year-to-date. AES Corp, meanwhile, is up 9.92% year-to-date, and NiSource Inc. is up 15.03% year-to-date. Combined, AES and NI make up approximately 2.2% of the underlying holdings of XLU.

The next best performing sector is the Materials sector, up 0.7%. Among large Materials stocks, Newmont Corp (Symbol: NEM) and International Paper Co (Symbol: IP) are the most notable, showing a gain of 3.8% and 2.4%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Materials stocks is the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLB), which is up 1.2% in midday trading, and up 9.48% on a year-to-date basis. Newmont Corp, meanwhile, is up 63.59% year-to-date, and International Paper Co, is down 2.47% year-to-date. Combined, NEM and IP make up approximately 8.6% 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 Monday. As you can see, seven sectors are up on the day, while two sectors are down.

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