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Friday Sector Leaders: Materials, Consumer Products

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In afternoon trading on Friday, Materials stocks are the best performing sector, higher by 0.6%. Within that group, Steel Dynamics Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) and Nucor Corp. (NYSE:NUE) are two of the day's stand-outs, showing a gain of 4.2% and 3.4%, respectively. Among the high volume ETFs, one ETF closely following materials stocks is the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSE:XLB), which is up 0.3% on the day, and up 6.40% year-to-date. Steel Dynamics Inc., meanwhile, is up 16.66% year-to-date, and Nucor Corp. is up 8.15% year-to-date. Combined, STLD and NUE make up approximately 6.5% of the underlying holdings of XLB.

The next best performing sector is the Consumer Products sector, higher by 0.4%. Among large Consumer Products stocks, PACCAR Inc. (NASDAQ:PCAR) and Cummins, Inc. (NYSE:CMI) are the most notable, showing a gain of 3.0% and 2.8%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Consumer Products stocks is the iShares U.S. Consumer Goods ETF (IYK), which is flat on the day in midday trading, and up 3.91% on a year-to-date basis. PACCAR Inc., meanwhile, is up 21.84% year-to-date, and Cummins, Inc. is up 13.79% year-to-date.

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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, three sectors are up on the day, while four sectors are down.