Thursday Sector Leaders: Services, Utilities

Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Thursday, shares of Services companies are outperforming other sectors, higher by 1.1%. Within the sector, Best Buy Inc (Symbol: BBY) and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (Symbol: WBA) are two of the day’s stand-outs, showing a gain of 12.7% and 4.5%, respectively. Among the largest ETFs, one ETF closely following services stocks is the iShares U.S. Consumer Services ETF (Symbol: IYC), which is up 0.7% on the day, and up 4.20% year-to-date. Best Buy Inc, meanwhile, is up 4.68% year-to-date, and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc, is down 38.51% year-to-date. BBY makes up approximately 0.3% of the underlying holdings of IYC.

The next best performing sector is the Utilities sector, higher by 1.0%. Among large Utilities stocks, AES Corp (Symbol: AES) and Xcel Energy Inc (Symbol: XEL) are the most notable, showing a gain of 2.2% and 1.6%, 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 13.22% on a year-to-date basis. AES Corp, meanwhile, is up 13.69% year-to-date, and Xcel Energy Inc, is down 11.61% year-to-date. Combined, AES and XEL make up approximately 4.1% 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, eight sectors are up on the day, while one sector is down.

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Also see:

• MTAL market cap history
• OESX Videos
• Funds Holding HEP

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