Below are three charts highlighting sector performance so far in 2016.  The first shows year-to-date performance, where you can see that Health Care has been the clear laggard with a decline of 5.55%.  Real Estate is the only other sector that’s down year-to-date, while Utilities, Technology, and Energy are all up more than 10%.

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Since the S&P 500 made its 2016 low on February 11th, the index is up 16.92%.  Those gains have primarily been driven by Energy, Technology and Financials.  Energy is up 27.32%, Tech is up 26.83%, and Financials is up 24.49%.  Four sectors have lagged significantly — Telecom, Utilities, Consumer Staples, and Health Care.

Our final chart shows sector performance since the S&P 500 made its year-to-date (and all-time) high on August 15th.  As shown, the S&P as a whole is down 2.36%, but eight of eleven sectors are down more than that, which shows how weak breadth has been.  If it weren’t for Tech, Financials, and Energy posting gains over this time period, the S&P would be down a lot more.  Tech is by far the biggest sector of the market with a weighting of 21%, and its gain of 2.84% since 8/15 is what has kept the market from completely breaking down.  The biggest areas of weakness have been Health Care, Real Estate, and Telecom, which are all down more than 9%.