Tuesday Sector Leaders: Healthcare, Technology & Communications

Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Tuesday, shares of Healthcare companies are outperforming other sectors, higher by 1.4%. Within the sector, Anthem Inc (NYSE: ANTM) and Illumina Inc (NASD: ILMN) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 4.4% and 3.8%, respectively. Among healthcare ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (AMEX: XLV), which is up 1.3% on the day, and down 1.31% year-to-date. Anthem Inc, meanwhile, is down 10.08% year-to-date, and Illumina Inc, is down 23.66% year-to-date. Combined, ANTM and ILMN make up approximately 2.0% of the underlying holdings of XLV.

The next best performing sector is the Technology & Communications sector, higher by 1.3%. Among large Technology & Communications stocks, Frontier Communications Corp (NASD: FTR) and Micron Technology Inc. (NASD: MU) are the most notable, showing a gain of 3.7% and 3.2%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Technology & Communications stocks is the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK), which is up 0.9% in midday trading, and up 12.83% on a year-to-date basis. Frontier Communications Corp, meanwhile, is down 6.64% year-to-date, and Micron Technology Inc. is up 23.87% year-to-date. Combined, FTR and MU make up approximately 0.5% 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 Tuesday. As you can see, nine sectors are up on the day, while none of the sectors are down.