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Tuesday Sector Leaders: Energy, Utilities

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Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Tuesday, shares of Energy companies are outperforming other sectors, higher by 1.3%. Within that group, Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) and Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 4.7% and 3.0%, respectively. Among energy ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSE:XLE), which is up 1.5% on the day, and up 49.00% year-to-date. Diamondback Energy, Inc., meanwhile, is up 88.58% year-to-date, and Exxon Mobil Corp is up 59.24% year-to-date. Combined, FANG and XOM make up approximately 24.4% of the underlying holdings of XLE.

The next best performing sector is the Utilities sector, up 0.7%. Among large Utilities stocks, Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES) and AES Corp (NYSE:AES) are the most notable, showing a gain of 1.9% and 1.6%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Utilities stocks is the Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLU), which is up 0.7% in midday trading, and up 7.10% on a year-to-date basis. Eversource Energy, meanwhile, is down 1.40% year-to-date, and AES Corp is up 12.60% year-to-date. Combined, ES and AES make up approximately 5.1% of the underlying holdings of XLU.

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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, six sectors are up on the day, while three sectors are down.