Thursday Sector Leaders: Energy, Utilities

Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Thursday, shares of Energy companies are outperforming other sectors, up 1.5%. Within that group, Hess Corp (Symbol: HES) and Schlumberger Ltd (Symbol: SLB) are two of the day's stand-outs, showing a gain of 3.2% and 2.8%, respectively. Among energy ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLE), which is up 2.1% on the day, and up 8.84% year-to-date. Hess Corp, meanwhile, is up 3.26% year-to-date, and Schlumberger Ltd, is down 11.15% year-to-date. Combined, HES and SLB make up approximately 6.8% of the underlying holdings of XLE.

The next best performing sector is the Utilities sector, up 0.7%. Among large Utilities stocks, NextEra Energy Inc (Symbol: NEE) and Alliant Energy Corp (Symbol: LNT) are the most notable, showing a gain of 3.0% and 2.5%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Utilities stocks is the Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLU), which is up 0.9% in midday trading, and up 11.10% on a year-to-date basis. NextEra Energy Inc, meanwhile, is up 21.17% year-to-date, and Alliant Energy Corp is up 1.06% year-to-date. Combined, NEE and LNT make up approximately 15.0% 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 Thursday. As you can see, five sectors are up on the day, while three sectors are down. Sector% ChangeEnergy+1.5%Utilities+0.7%Financial+0.5%Healthcare+0.4%Services+0.3%Consumer Products-0.0%Industrial-0.1%Materials-0.1%Technology & Communications-0.5%

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Also see:

• Cheap Consumer Stocks
• Top Ten Hedge Funds Holding UVV
• TRGT 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.