Thursday Sector Laggards: Materials, Financial

Looking at the sectors faring worst as of midday Thursday, shares of Materials companies are underperforming other sectors, showing a 0.8% loss. Within the sector, Albemarle Corp. (Symbol: ALB) and WestRock Co (Symbol: WRK) are two large stocks that are lagging, showing a loss of 6.0% and 4.0%, respectively. Among the high volume ETFs, one ETF closely following materials stocks is the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLB), which is down 0.5% on the day, and up 0.29% year-to-date. Albemarle Corp., meanwhile, is down 32.41% year-to-date, and WestRock Co is up 2.83% year-to-date. Combined, ALB and WRK make up approximately 3.1% of the underlying holdings of XLB.

The next worst performing sector is the Financial sector, showing a 0.7% loss. Among large Financial stocks, Discover Financial Services (Symbol: DFS) and Blackstone Inc (Symbol: BX) are the most notable, showing a loss of 8.4% and 6.9%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Financial stocks is the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF), which is down 0.5% in midday trading, and down 2.57% on a year-to-date basis. Discover Financial Services, meanwhile, is down 11.17% year-to-date, and Blackstone Inc is up 28.38% year-to-date. Combined, DFS and BX make up approximately 2.0% of the underlying holdings of XLF.

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 eight sectors are down.

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