Wednesday Sector Leaders: Industrial, Energy

The best performing sector as of midday Wednesday is the Industrial sector, up 1.3%. Within that group, Northrop Grumman Corp (NYSE: NOC) and General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 7.5% and 4.9%, respectively. Among industrial ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF (AMEX: XLI), which is up 0.9% on the day, and down 3.36% year-to-date. Northrop Grumman Corp, meanwhile, is up 20.09% year-to-date, and General Dynamics Corp. is up 11.41% year-to-date. Combined, NOC and GD make up approximately 4.6% of the underlying holdings of XLI.

The next best performing sector is the Energy sector, higher by 1.2%. Among large Energy stocks, Anadarko Petroleum Corp (NYSE: APC) and Newfield Exploration Co. (NYSE: NFX) are the most notable, showing a gain of 4.2% and 3.7%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Energy stocks is the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE), which is up 0.9% in midday trading, and down 8.91% on a year-to-date basis. Anadarko Petroleum Corp, meanwhile, is down 7.36% year-to-date, and Newfield Exploration Co. is up 20.54% year-to-date. Combined, APC and NFX make up approximately 3.6% of the underlying holdings of XLE.

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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 Wednesday. As you can see, eight sectors are up on the day, while one sector is down.