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In afternoon trading on Wednesday, Materials stocks are the best performing sector, losing just 0.1%. Within that group, Albemarle Corp. (Symbol: ALB) and Nucor Corp. (Symbol: NUE) are two of the day's stand-outs, showing a gain of 7.8% and 1.4%, respectively. Among the high volume ETFs, one ETF closely following materials stocks is the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLB), which is down 0.4% on the day, and up 4.07% year-to-date. Albemarle Corp., meanwhile, is down 30.24% year-to-date, and Nucor Corp., is down 11.40% year-to-date. Combined, ALB and NUE make up approximately 5.0% of the underlying holdings of XLB.

The next best performing sector is the Services sector, losing just 0.3%. Among large Services stocks, Amazon.com Inc (Symbol: AMZN) and Carnival Corp (Symbol: CCL) are the most notable, showing a gain of 4.4% and 3.6%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Services stocks is the iShares U.S. Consumer Services ETF (IYC), which is up 0.8% in midday trading, and up 7.96% on a year-to-date basis. Amazon.com Inc, meanwhile, is up 28.06% year-to-date, and Carnival Corp, is down 0.38% year-to-date. Combined, AMZN and CCL make up approximately 15.5% of the underlying holdings of IYC.

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, none of the sectors are up on the day, while nine sectors are down.

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