Mr. Market isn’t always right, but quite often he imparts valuable information. No, he won’t whisper the secret to easy money in your ear. But he’s always willing to provide some perspective, which comes in handy every now and again if only to remind investors that capital flows are forever evolving.
With that in mind, we crunched the numbers on the 10 major sectors that comprise the S&P 500 in search of a closer look at the internal dynamics of the U.S. stock market. All data is courtesy of Standard and Poors as of the close of trading on Tuesday, November 13.
First up is everyone favorite’s metric: performance. For the year through this past Tuesday, the energy sector remained firmly in the lead among the S&P sectors, as our chart below shows. Following in close pursuit was the second-place materials sector with information technology in a respectable third-place showing. Financials, by contrast, were dead last, posting a loss for the year of nearly 14%. Consumer discretionary stocks are the only other sector with red ink this year as of this past Tuesday.
