Market Sector Performance

We're going to do two posts today.  This first entry shows the performance of the various sector ETFs  in the S&P 500 for the first half of 2016 and then a year to date review of how they've done.  First here's the list of what you'll be looking at from left to right:

S&P 500 {This is here to show comparison with its individual components}.  Symbol is SPY.

Energy Select SPDR ETF.  Symbol is XLE

Industrial Select SPDR ETF.  Symbol is XLI

Materials Select SPDR ETF.  Symbol is XLB

Technology Select SPDR ETF.  Symbol is XLK

Consumer Staples  Select SPDR ETF.  Symbol is XLP

Consumer Discretionary Select SPDR ETF.  Symbol is XLY

Financial Select SPDR ETF.  Symbol is XLF

Healthcare Select SPDR ETF.  Symbol is XLV

Utilities Select SPDR ETF.  Symbol is XLU

Just as a reminder you can double-click on these charts in order to make them larger.

The first chat shows how each sector did through June 30, 2016.  The sectors that performed the best during that time were the defensive sectors of the market {utilities and consumer staples} and the more cyclical commodity related sectors {energy, materials and industrials}.  This may seem strange at first.  Defensive areas make sense given all the uncertainties we experienced during that time.  Also the utilities were the beneficiaries of investors relentless search for yield.  Utilities traditionally don't show a lot of price appreciation when compared to the other sectors of the market but they pay fairly substantial dividends.  The cyclical sectors benefitted from the rebound in oil and a rebound in their share prices from a poor showing in 2015.  Energy was down over 20% in 2015, while industrials and materials lost nearly 5% and over 8% respectively in the same time frame.

Above now is the performance of each sector through yesterday.    While the sectors that did so well in the first six months have basically marked time, the more growth oriented technology and healthcare sectors seem to have found some life.  This makes sense if economic growth is going to pick up as many suspect is possible.

Back Monday.

Performance charts are from Stockcharts.com.    

*Long ETFs related to certain of these indices in client & personal accounts.    Please note positions can change at anytime without notice.