News

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.

25 Dividend Giants Widely Held By ETFs »

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.