Thursday Sector Laggards: Materials, Consumer Products

Looking at the sectors faring worst as of midday Thursday, shares of Materials companies are underperforming other sectors, showing a 0.5% loss. Within that group, International Paper Co (Symbol: IP) and Albemarle Corp. (Symbol: ALB) are two of the day’s laggards, showing a loss of 7.7% and 3.4%, respectively. Among the high volume ETFs, one ETF closely following materials stocks is the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLB), which is down 0.4% on the day, and up 4.04% year-to-date. International Paper Co, meanwhile, is up 21.59% year-to-date, and Albemarle Corp., is down 32.40% year-to-date. Combined, IP and ALB make up approximately 2.6% of the underlying holdings of XLB.

The next worst performing sector is the Consumer Products sector, showing a 0.4% loss. Among large Consumer Products stocks, Estee Lauder Cos., Inc. (Symbol: EL) and Altria Group Inc (Symbol: MO) are the most notable, showing a loss of 2.5% and 2.2%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Consumer Products stocks is the iShares U.S. Consumer Goods ETF (IYK), which is down 0.7% in midday trading, and up 4.35% on a year-to-date basis. Estee Lauder Cos., Inc., meanwhile, is down 23.61% year-to-date, and Altria Group Inc is up 17.19% year-to-date. MO makes up approximately 3.7% of the underlying holdings of IYK.

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 Thursday. As you can see, three sectors are up on the day, while six sectors are down.

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