Monday Sector Leaders: Healthcare, Technology & Communications

Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Monday, shares of Healthcare companies are outperforming other sectors, up 0.5%. Within the sector, HCA Holdings Inc (NYSE: HCA) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASD: VRTX) are two of the day's stand-outs, showing a gain of 3.6% and 2.9%, respectively. Among healthcare ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (AMEX: XLV), which is up 0.5% on the day, and up 3.38% year-to-date. HCA Holdings Inc, meanwhile, is up 7.20% year-to-date, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is up 10.93% year-to-date. Combined, HCA and VRTX make up approximately 1.6% of the underlying holdings of XLV.

The next best performing sector is the Technology & Communications sector, not showing much of a loss. Among large Technology & Communications stocks, NVIDIA Corp (NASD: NVDA) and Applied Materials, Inc. (NASD: AMAT) are the most notable, showing a gain of 3.6% and 2.5%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Technology & Communications stocks is the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK), which is flat on the day in midday trading, and up 2.17% on a year-to-date basis. NVIDIA Corp, meanwhile, is up 0.08% year-to-date, and Applied Materials, Inc. is up 1.77% year-to-date. Combined, NVDA and AMAT make up approximately 2.1% of the underlying holdings of XLK.

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