Wednesday Sector Leaders: Healthcare, Utilities

Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Wednesday, shares of Healthcare companies are outperforming other sectors, up 0.5%. Within the sector, Intuitive Surgical Inc (Symbol: ISRG) and Boston Scientific Corp. (Symbol: BSX) are two of the day's stand-outs, showing a gain of 13.7% and 4.4%, respectively. Among healthcare ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLV), which is up 0.7% on the day, and up 7.57% year-to-date. Intuitive Surgical Inc, meanwhile, is up 0.83% year-to-date, and Boston Scientific Corp. is up 16.81% year-to-date. Combined, ISRG and BSX make up approximately 6.5% of the underlying holdings of XLV.

The next best performing sector is the Utilities sector, higher by 0.3%. Among large Utilities stocks, Consolidated Edison Inc (Symbol: ED) and CMS Energy Corp (Symbol: CMS) are the most notable, showing a gain of 1.5% and 1.4%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Utilities stocks is the Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLU), which is up 0.1% in midday trading, and up 22.02% on a year-to-date basis. Consolidated Edison Inc, meanwhile, is up 18.37% year-to-date, and CMS Energy Corp is up 15.80% year-to-date. Combined, ED and CMS make up approximately 4.2% 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 Wednesday. As you can see, three sectors are up on the day, while five sectors are down. Sector% ChangeHealthcare+0.5%Utilities+0.3%Consumer Products+0.1%Energy-0.0%Services-0.3%Financial-0.4%Materials-0.7%Industrial-1.3%Technology & Communications-2.0%

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Also see:

• HYT Historical Stock Prices
• RCUS Historical Stock Prices
• LOW RSI

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