On this last trading day of January, below is a snapshot of how the major US sector ETFs have performed so far this year.  Over these last few weeks as the broad market has rallied, we’ve definitely seen some sector divergence.  Defensive sectors like Consumer Staples (XLP) and Utilities (XLU) have come under selling pressure, while cyclical sectors more tied to the business cycle have surged.  Communication Services (XLC) and Consumer Discretionary (XLY) are both up more than 12% YTD already, while Technology (XLK), Materials (XLB), Real Estate (XLRE), and Financials (XLF) are up more than 5%.  The only sectors down on the year are Consumer Staples, Utilities, and Health Care (XLV).  At the moment, four sectors are overbought (more than one standard deviation above their 50-DMAs) versus three that are oversold (more than one standard deviation below their 50-DMAs).  Click here to learn more about Bespoke’s premium stock market research service.

Below is a snapshot of price charts for six sector ETFs pulled from our Chart Scanner tool.  These are the three sectors up the most YTD (XLC, XLRE, XLY) and down the most YTD (XLP, XLU, XLV).

As we get set to enter a new month, last week we published a report for subscribers looking at historical market seasonality in February and for the remainder of the year based on how the market performs in January.  Does a positive January typically mean positive returns going forward or does it not matter?  To find out the answer to this question and see everything else Bespoke is publishing for subscribers, sign up for a one-month trial to Bespoke All Access today.