Thursday Sector Leaders: Technology & Communications, Services

Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Thursday, shares of Technology & Communications companies are outperforming other sectors, up 1.4%. Within that group, Micron Technology Inc. (Symbol: MU) and Monolithic Power Systems Inc (Symbol: MPWR) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 5.2% and 4.0%, respectively. Among technology ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLK), which is up 1.9% on the day, and up 18.66% year-to-date. Micron Technology Inc., meanwhile, is up 21.54% year-to-date, and Monolithic Power Systems Inc is up 48.58% year-to-date. Combined, MU and MPWR make up approximately 1.2% of the underlying holdings of XLK.

The next best performing sector is the Services sector, up 0.4%. Among large Services stocks, Netflix Inc (Symbol: NFLX) and Match Group Inc (Symbol: MTCH) are the most notable, showing a gain of 7.5% and 3.8%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Services stocks is the iShares U.S. Consumer Services ETF (IYC), which is up 0.3% in midday trading, and up 8.72% on a year-to-date basis. Netflix Inc, meanwhile, is up 7.17% year-to-date, and Match Group Inc, is down 0.88% year-to-date. NFLX makes up approximately 2.9% of the underlying holdings of IYC.

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, four sectors are up on the day, while three sectors are down.

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