Thursday Sector Leaders: Technology & Communications, Materials

Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Thursday, shares of Technology & Communications companies are outperforming other sectors, higher by 1.3%. Within that group, Trimble Inc (Symbol: TRMB) and Zebra Technologies Corp. (Symbol: ZBRA) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 7.2% and 4.9%, respectively. Among technology ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLK), which is up 0.7% on the day, and up 33.36% year-to-date. Trimble Inc, meanwhile, is up 4.21% year-to-date, and Zebra Technologies Corp., is down 8.92% year-to-date. Combined, TRMB and ZBRA make up approximately 0.3% of the underlying holdings of XLK.

The next best performing sector is the Materials sector, higher by 1.3%. Among large Materials stocks, Albemarle Corp. (Symbol: ALB) and Eastman Chemical Co (Symbol: EMN) are the most notable, showing a gain of 5.8% and 3.3%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Materials stocks is the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLB), which is up 1.0% in midday trading, and up 2.79% on a year-to-date basis. Albemarle Corp., meanwhile, is down 19.26% year-to-date, and Eastman Chemical Co, is down 3.21% year-to-date. Combined, ALB and EMN make up approximately 3.2% 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:

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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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