Wednesday Sector Leaders: Energy, Materials

Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Wednesday, shares of Energy companies are outperforming other sectors, higher by 2.8%. Within that group, EQT Corp (Symbol: EQT) and Devon Energy Corp. (Symbol: DVN) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 6.2% and 4.1%, respectively. Among energy ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLE), which is up 2.3% on the day, and up 8.89% year-to-date. EQT Corp, meanwhile, is up 2.03% year-to-date, and Devon Energy Corp. is up 3.13% year-to-date. Combined, EQT and DVN make up approximately 3.9% of the underlying holdings of XLE.

The next best performing sector is the Materials sector, higher by 2.0%. Among large Materials stocks, Dow Inc (Symbol: DOW) and Steel Dynamics Inc. (Symbol: STLD) are the most notable, showing a gain of 4.6% and 4.5%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Materials stocks is the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLB), which is up 1.6% in midday trading, and up 7.94% on a year-to-date basis. Dow Inc, meanwhile, is up 18.93% year-to-date, and Steel Dynamics Inc. is up 6.23% year-to-date. Combined, DOW and STLD make up approximately 5.8% 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 Wednesday. As you can see, eight sectors are up on the day, while one sector is down.

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