Thursday Sector Laggards: Technology & Communications, Materials

Looking at the sectors faring worst as of midday Thursday, shares of Technology & Communications companies are underperforming other sectors, showing a 4.3% loss. Within the sector, NVIDIA Corp (Symbol: NVDA) and Qorvo Inc (Symbol: QRVO) are two large stocks that are lagging, showing a loss of 8.8% and 8.6%, respectively. Among technology ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLK), which is down 5.2% on the day, and up 32.05% year-to-date. NVIDIA Corp, meanwhile, is up 122.73% year-to-date, and Qorvo Inc is up 5.93% year-to-date. Combined, NVDA and QRVO make up approximately 4.1% of the underlying holdings of XLK.

The next worst performing sector is the Materials sector, showing a 2.9% loss. Among large Materials stocks, West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (Symbol: WST) and Albemarle Corp. (Symbol: ALB) are the most notable, showing a loss of 7.1% and 6.6%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Materials stocks is the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLB), which is down 3.0% in midday trading, and up 5.50% on a year-to-date basis. West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc., meanwhile, is up 78.37% year-to-date, and Albemarle Corp. is up 28.54% year-to-date. ALB makes up approximately 1.5% 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 Thursday. As you can see, none of the sectors are up on the day, while nine sectors are down.

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