In afternoon trading on Thursday, Healthcare stocks are the best performing sector, up 0.9%. Within the sector, AmerisourceBergen Corp. (Symbol: ABC) and Cardinal Health, Inc. (Symbol: CAH) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 4.1% and 4.0%, respectively. Among healthcare ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLV), which is up 0.8% on the day, and up 7.81% year-to-date. AmerisourceBergen Corp., meanwhile, is up 22.02% year-to-date, and Cardinal Health, Inc. is up 18.73% year-to-date. Combined, ABC and CAH make up approximately 0.8% of the underlying holdings of XLV.
The next best performing sector is the Consumer Products sector, higher by 0.6%. Among large Consumer Products stocks, Honeywell International Inc (Symbol: HON) and Smith (A O) Corp (Symbol: AOS) are the most notable, showing a gain of 3.0% and 2.5%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Consumer Products stocks is the iShares U.S. Consumer Goods ETF (IYK), which is up 0.6% in midday trading, and up 20.38% on a year-to-date basis. Honeywell International Inc, meanwhile, is up 29.38% year-to-date, and Smith (A O) Corp is up 18.69% year-to-date.
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, eight sectors are up on the day, while one sector is down.
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