Tuesday Sector Laggards: Energy, Materials

Looking at the sectors faring worst as of midday Tuesday, shares of Energy companies are underperforming other sectors, showing a 2.4% loss. Within that group, Marathon Petroleum Corp. (Symbol: MPC) and Valero Energy Corp (Symbol: VLO) are two of the day's laggards, showing a loss of 7.6% and 4.6%, respectively. Among energy ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLE), which is down 2.6% on the day, and up 11.27% year-to-date. Marathon Petroleum Corp., meanwhile, is up 9.58% year-to-date, and Valero Energy Corp is up 8.15% year-to-date. Combined, MPC and VLO make up approximately 6.9% of the underlying holdings of XLE.

The next worst performing sector is the Materials sector, showing a 0.7% loss. Among large Materials stocks, Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold (Symbol: FCX) and Albemarle Corp. (Symbol: ALB) are the most notable, showing a loss of 4.9% and 4.8%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Materials stocks is the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLB), which is down 0.6% in midday trading, and up 11.61% on a year-to-date basis. Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold, meanwhile, is up 14.51% year-to-date, and Albemarle Corp., is down 30.34% year-to-date. Combined, FCX and ALB make up approximately 6.8% 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 Tuesday. As you can see, six sectors are up on the day, while two sectors are down.

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Also see:

• Monthly Dividend Paying REITs
• KNX Split History
• BIOC Historical Stock Prices

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.