As oil prices drag on oil company shares, the correlation between stocks and oil potentially weakened to some extent, which may have benefited broad benchmark investments in the event of further crude oil weakness. However, with oil prices rebounding off 13-year lows, investors may be under-allocated toward the energy sector.
Alternatively, ETF investors may augment their equity portfolios with a energy sector play to capture a potential recover. For instance, the Energy Select Sector SPDR (NYSEArca: XLE), Vanguard Energy ETF (NYSEArca: VDE), iShares U.S. Energy ETF (NYSEArca: IYE) and Fidelity MSCI Energy Index ETF (NYSEArca: FENY) all provide market cap-weighted exposure to the energy sector.
Exxon Mobil, Chevron (NYSE: CVX) and Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB) make up about 45% of the underlying portfolios of the energy sector ETFs. The broad energy sector ETFs include a large tilt toward integrated oil & gas companies, along with smaller positions in oil & gas exploration & production, equipment & services, refining & marketing & transportation, storage and drilling.
Energy Select Sector SPDR