“After health care, the most recent graduate to the leadership ranks is basic materials. The Basic Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLB) broke through its April 2015 trendline last month and this week breached important chart resistance,” reports Michael Kahn for Barron’s.
As Barron’s notes, the discretionary group has been hindered by restaurant stocks.
“We can blame retail for a big portion of the performance problem. The Dow Jones U.S. Restaurants index, on the other hand, actually soared to a 52-week high with mostly solid technicals. Even after its nice gains it continues to lag the S&P 500 since the start of the year,” according to Barron’s.
XLY was the top performer among the sector SPDR ETFs last year with a gain of about 10% while XLB was one of the worst performers.
Materials Select Sector SPDR