Tuesday Sector Leaders: Energy, Healthcare

The best performing sector as of midday Tuesday is the Energy sector, higher by 2.5%. Within that group, Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) and Marathon Petroleum (NYSE: MPC) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 5.7% and 5.4%, respectively. Among energy ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (AMEX: XLE), which is up 2.5% on the day, and down 1.80% year-to-date. Phillips 66, meanwhile, is up 0.95% year-to-date, and Marathon Petroleum, is down 5.91% year-to-date. Combined, PSX and MPC make up approximately 4.2% of the underlying holdings of XLE.

The next best performing sector is the Healthcare sector, higher by 2.4%. Among large Healthcare stocks, Waters (NYSE: WAT) and Covidien (NYSE: COV) are the most notable, showing a gain of 9.0% and 4.6%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Healthcare stocks is the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV), which is up 2.3% in midday trading, and up 15.44% on a year-to-date basis. Waters, meanwhile, is up 6.29% year-to-date, and Covidien is up 33.14% year-to-date. Combined, WAT and COV make up approximately 2.1% of the underlying holdings of XLV.

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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.