Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Friday, shares of Healthcare companies are outperforming other sectors, higher by 0.9%. Within that group, Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASD: ALXN) and Endo International plc (NASD: ENDP) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 2.9% and 2.7%, respectively. Among healthcare ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (AMEX: XLV), which is up 0.8% on the day, and up 7.24% year-to-date. Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc., meanwhile, is down 2.08% year-to-date, and Endo International plc is up 25.07% year-to-date. Combined, ALXN and ENDP make up approximately 1.9% of the underlying holdings of XLV.
The next best performing sector is the Consumer Products sector, higher by 0.7%. Among large Consumer Products stocks, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL) and Kraft Foods Group Inc (NASD: KRFT) are the most notable, showing a gain of 6.3% and 4.5%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Consumer Products stocks is the iShares U.S. Consumer Goods ETF (IYK), which is up 0.5% in midday trading, and up 0.05% on a year-to-date basis. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., meanwhile, is down 2.89% year-to-date, and Kraft Foods Group Inc is up 40.68% year-to-date. KRFT makes up approximately 2.5% of the underlying holdings of IYK.
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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 Friday. As you can see, five sectors are up on the day, while two sectors are down.
| Sector | % Change |
|---|---|
| Healthcare | +0.9% |
| Consumer Products | +0.7% |
| Services | +0.7% |
| Utilities | +0.7% |
| Industrial | +0.3% |
| Technology & Communications | -0.0% |
| Materials | 0.0% |
| Financial | -0.1% |
| Energy | -0.4% |
