Thursday Sector Laggards: Healthcare, Consumer Products

Looking at the sectors faring worst as of midday Thursday, shares of Healthcare companies are underperforming other sectors, showing a 0.9% loss. Within that group, Becton, Dickinson & Co (Symbol: BDX) and Eli Lilly (Symbol: LLY) are two large stocks that are lagging, showing a loss of 15.6% and 10.1%, respectively. Among healthcare ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLV), which is down 2.2% on the day, and up 0.27% year-to-date. Becton, Dickinson & Co, meanwhile, is down 22.47% year-to-date, and Eli Lilly is up 4.90% year-to-date. Combined, BDX and LLY make up approximately 14.0% of the underlying holdings of XLV.

The next worst performing sector is the Consumer Products sector, showing a 0.5% loss. Among large Consumer Products stocks, Church & Dwight Co Inc (Symbol: CHD) and Estee Lauder Cos., Inc. (Symbol: EL) are the most notable, showing a loss of 6.5% and 2.4%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Consumer Products stocks is the iShares U.S. Consumer Goods ETF (IYK), which is down 0.6% in midday trading, and up 8.16% on a year-to-date basis. Church & Dwight Co Inc, meanwhile, is down 11.01% year-to-date, and Estee Lauder Cos., Inc., is down 21.50% year-to-date. CHD makes up approximately 1.0% of the underlying holdings of IYK.

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, six sectors are up on the day, while three sectors are down.

Sector	% Change
Technology & Communications	+0.8%
Utilities	+0.4%
Energy	+0.4%
Industrial	+0.3%
Materials	+0.3%
Financial	+0.2%
Services	-0.1%
Consumer Products	-0.5%
Healthcare	-0.9%