SECTOR RANKINGS REMAIN DEFENSIVE... Chart 3 ranks the eleven market sectors for the month of June. That offers a view of which sectors investors are favoring, which ones they're selling. And it remains defensive. Although all eleven sectors lost ground. the smallest losses were seen in consumer staples, healthcare, utilities, and real estate. All four are defensive in nature and are usually favored during stock market declines and a weakening economy. At the same time, the weakest sectors are energy, materials, financials, consumer discretionary, and technology. Weak energy and materials reflects recent selling in commodity prices. Selling in economically-sensitive financials and consumer discretionary stocks are reflective of a weakening economy. Weak technology stocks explain why the Nasdaq market is leading the rest of the market lower. They're especially sensitive to a more hawkish Fed. -- John Murphy
I really liked the above analysis by John Murphy as quoted on here during the day. It does a good job putting the sectors in context.
Defensive sectors: XLP Staples, XLV Health, XLU Utilities, XLRE Real Estate. Favoured by investors when the market and economy are down.
More aggressive sectors, XLE Energy, XLB Materials, XLF Finance, XLY Discretionary and XLK Technology sliding more than the defensives in a down market.
Commodities: XLE Energy and XLB Materials down with commodity prices down.
XLF Financial and XLY Discretionary, economically sensitive, and showing it as the economy is weakening.
Technology stocks in Nasdaq, sensitive to Fed tightening, leading the market lower.