Friday Sector Laggards: Financial, Materials

Looking at the sectors faring worst as of midday Friday, shares of Financial companies are underperforming other sectors, showing a 0.9% loss. Within that group, Boston Properties Inc (NYSE:BXP) and Kimco Realty Corp (NYSE:KIM) are two large stocks that are lagging, showing a loss of 3.2% and 2.8%, respectively. Among financial ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSE:XLF), which is down 0.8% on the day, and up 10.98% year-to-date. Boston Properties Inc, meanwhile, is down 8.76% year-to-date, and Kimco Realty Corp, is down 8.89% year-to-date.

The next worst performing sector is the Materials sector, showing a 0.7% loss. Among large Materials stocks, FMC Corp. (NYSE:FMC) and Albemarle Corp. (NYSE:ALB) are the most notable, showing a loss of 2.9% and 2.5%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Materials stocks is the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLB), which is down 0.4% in midday trading, and up 7.42% on a year-to-date basis. FMC Corp., meanwhile, is down 0.08% year-to-date, and Albemarle Corp., is down 15.43% year-to-date. Combined, FMC and ALB make up approximately 2.2% of the underlying holdings of XLB.

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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 Friday. As you can see, one sector is up on the day, while eight sectors are down.