Thursday Sector Leaders: Energy, Financial

The best performing sector as of midday Thursday is the Energy sector, higher by 1.1%. Within that group, Halliburton Company (Symbol: HAL) and Baker Hughes Company (Symbol: BKR) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 3.8% and 3.2%, respectively. Among energy ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLE), which is up 0.9% on the day, and up 5.93% year-to-date. Halliburton Company, meanwhile, is down 15.69% year-to-date, and Baker Hughes Company is up 14.90% year-to-date. Combined, HAL and BKR make up approximately 4.5% of the underlying holdings of XLE.

The next best performing sector is the Financial sector, up 0.7%. Among large Financial stocks, T. Rowe Price Group Inc (Symbol: TROW) and Raymond James Financial Inc (Symbol: RJF) are the most notable, showing a gain of 6.0% and 2.3%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Financial stocks is the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF), which is up 1.0% in midday trading, and up 12.49% on a year-to-date basis. T. Rowe Price Group Inc, meanwhile, is up 1.02% year-to-date, and Raymond James Financial Inc is up 10.64% year-to-date. Combined, TROW and RJF make up approximately 0.7% 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 Thursday. As you can see, eight sectors are up on the day, while one sector is down.

Sector	% Change
Energy	+1.1%
Financial	+0.7%
Industrial	+0.6%
Materials	+0.5%
Services	+0.4%
Technology & Communications	+0.3%
Consumer Products	+0.1%
Healthcare	+0.1%
Utilities	-0.7%