Wednesday Sector Leaders: Energy, Financial

Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Wednesday, shares of Energy companies are outperforming other sectors, higher by 4.9%. Within that group, Baker Hughes Company (Symbol: BKR) and EQT Corp (Symbol: EQT) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 10.1% and 8.2%, respectively. Among energy ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLE), which is up 4.2% on the day, and up 14.61% year-to-date. Baker Hughes Company, meanwhile, is up 26.70% year-to-date, and EQT Corp is up 5.82% year-to-date. Combined, BKR and EQT make up approximately 3.9% of the underlying holdings of XLE.

The next best performing sector is the Financial sector, higher by 3.5%. Among large Financial stocks, Synchrony Financial (Symbol: SYF) and Discover Financial Services (Symbol: DFS) are the most notable, showing a gain of 18.7% and 18.5%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Financial stocks is the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF), which is up 5.9% in midday trading, and up 32.81% on a year-to-date basis. Synchrony Financial, meanwhile, is up 79.26% year-to-date, and Discover Financial Services is up 61.99% year-to-date. Combined, SYF and DFS make up approximately 0.6% of the underlying holdings of XLF.

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. Sector% ChangeEnergy+4.9%Financial+3.5%Industrial+3.4%Technology & Communications+2.1%Materials+1.5%Services+1.4%Healthcare+0.6%Consumer Products+0.5%Utilities-0.5%

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Also see:

• Consumer Goods IPOs
• Institutional Holders of BGH
• BOH Price Target

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