Tuesday Sector Leaders: Energy, Financial

Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Tuesday, shares of Energy companies are outperforming other sectors, higher by 1.0%. Within that group, Phillips 66 (Symbol: PSX) and Marathon Petroleum Corp. (Symbol: MPC) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 4.8% and 3.8%, respectively. Among energy ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLE), which is up 1.5% on the day, and up 12.35% year-to-date. Phillips 66, meanwhile, is up 12.20% year-to-date, and Marathon Petroleum Corp. is up 21.41% year-to-date. Combined, PSX and MPC make up approximately 8.8% of the underlying holdings of XLE.

The next best performing sector is the Financial sector, higher by 0.8%. Among large Financial stocks, Humana Inc. (Symbol: HUM) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (Symbol: GS) are the most notable, showing a gain of 3.2% and 2.9%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Financial stocks is the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF), which is up 0.9% in midday trading, and up 17.13% on a year-to-date basis. Humana Inc., meanwhile, is down 11.24% year-to-date, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc is up 32.80% year-to-date. GS makes up approximately 2.7% of the underlying holdings of XLF.

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, seven sectors are up on the day, while two sectors are down.

10 ETFs With Stocks That Insiders Are Buying »

Also see:

• Top Dividend Stocks
• SCWX YTD Return
• MTVR Videos

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.