Tuesday Sector Leaders: Materials, Utilities

Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Tuesday, shares of Materials companies are outperforming other sectors, up 2.4%. Within that group, Ball Corp (Symbol: BALL) and LyondellBasell Industries NV (Symbol: LYB) are two of the day's stand-outs, showing a gain of 9.3% and 5.7%, respectively. Among the high volume ETFs, one ETF closely following materials stocks is the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLB), which is up 1.5% on the day, and up 11.12% year-to-date. Ball Corp, meanwhile, is up 17.03% year-to-date, and LyondellBasell Industries NV is up 22.63% year-to-date. Combined, BALL and LYB make up approximately 3.6% of the underlying holdings of XLB.

The next best performing sector is the Utilities sector, up 1.6%. Among large Utilities stocks, AES Corp (Symbol: AES) and DTE Energy Co (Symbol: DTE) are the most notable, showing a gain of 6.8% and 2.4%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Utilities stocks is the Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLU), which is up 1.4% in midday trading, and up 1.18% on a year-to-date basis. AES Corp, meanwhile, is up 10.96% year-to-date, and DTE Energy Co is up 5.56% year-to-date. Combined, AES and DTE make up approximately 2.9% of the underlying holdings of XLU.

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

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