Wednesday Sector Leaders: Materials, Technology & Communications

Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Wednesday, shares of Materials companies are outperforming other sectors, higher by 0.5%. Within that group, Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (Symbol: MLM) and PPG Industries Inc (Symbol: PPG) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 3.3% and 2.8%, respectively. Among the high volume ETFs, one ETF closely following materials stocks is the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLB), which is up 0.8% on the day, and up 1.81% year-to-date. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc., meanwhile, is up 24.14% year-to-date, and PPG Industries Inc is up 5.72% year-to-date. Combined, MLM and PPG make up approximately 6.5% of the underlying holdings of XLB.

The next best performing sector is the Technology & Communications sector, higher by 0.4%. Among large Technology & Communications stocks, SolarEdge Technologies Inc (Symbol: SEDG) and Etsy Inc (Symbol: ETSY) are the most notable, showing a gain of 3.4% and 2.4%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Technology & Communications stocks is the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK), which is up 0.6% in midday trading, and up 33.71% on a year-to-date basis. SolarEdge Technologies Inc, meanwhile, is down 56.43% year-to-date, and Etsy Inc, is down 43.84% year-to-date. SEDG makes up approximately 0.1% of the underlying holdings of XLK.

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 Wednesday. As you can see, six sectors are up on the day, while three sectors are down.

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