Growth Lead Sectors In Friday Trading As Defensives Trail

Seven sectors are higher and four are lower in Friday’s regular session, with growth sectors holding the top three positions. The leaders are separated rather than clustered, with no single gap clearly standing apart from the other breaks across the table.

Prices as of 11:00 a.m. ET; quotes delayed 15 minutes.

Market Snapshot

The major averages are all higher. The State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) is up 0.91% and the Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1 (NASDAQ:QQQ) 1.93%, while the State Street SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (NYSE:DIA) is up 0.14% and the iShares Russell 2000 Index Fund (NYSE:IWM) 0.56%, with QQQ showing the strongest move. Two of the 11 sectors outpace the S&P 500.

Leading Sectors

Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLK) +2.13%

Among the sector’s large-cap names, NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) is up 4.27%, Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) 1.88% and Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO) 1.85%.

Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLC) +1.11%

Among the sector’s large-cap names, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) is up 2.89% and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) 1.83%.

Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLY) +0.80%

Among the sector’s large-cap names, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is up 4.47% and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) 1.25%. McDonald’s Corp (NYSE:MCD) is down 0.21%.

Middle Of The Pack

• Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLE) +0.76%
• Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLI) +0.30%
• Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLF) +0.21%
• Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLRE) +0.05%
• Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLB) -0.14%

Lagging Sectors

Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLU) -0.16%

Among the sector’s large-cap names, Duke Energy Corp (NYSE:DUK) is down 1.51%, Southern Co (NYSE:SO) 1.37% and Dominion Energy Inc (NYSE:D) 0.87%.

Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLV) -0.24%

Among the sector’s large-cap names, UnitedHealth Group Inc (NYSE:UNH) is down 1.13%, Merck & Co Inc (NYSE:MRK) 0.34% and Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY) 0.21%.

Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLP) -0.77%

Among the sector’s large-cap names, Walmart Inc (NASDAQ:WMT) is down 1.17%, PepsiCo Inc (NASDAQ:PEP) 0.99% and Costco Wholesale Corp (NASDAQ:COST) 0.60%.

Cross-Sector Takeaway

The 2.90-point spread between Technology and Consumer Staples is around half again as wide as the largest move among the major averages, which are up between 0.14% and 1.93%. The major averages are higher, masking a session where leadership is concentrated in Technology, Communication Services and Consumer Discretionary. Defensives are not keeping pace — Utilities sits third from the bottom and Consumer Staples is down 0.77% — so the advance is concentrated rather than broad.

For more information on sector movers, visit Benzinga’s movers page. Get real-time market alerts with Benzinga Pro.