Sources of strength

A survey of the best-performing S&P 500 sectors so far this year will likely trigger an “Ahhh!” moment of recognition from traders familiar with two of the market’s recent commodity-driven storylines.

Through Wednesday, energy had the highest return (+22%), riding a crude oil rally that approached 16% last Friday before pulling back mildly this week. But solid returns from some of the leading natural gas stocks, driven by expectations of continued AI data center power demands, arguably contributed.

The materials sector was in second place with a 17% return, anchored by a 25% gain in the metals & mining group. That move, of course, occurred on the back of continued strength in gold (+20% year to date) and other precious metals—a major 2025 trend that has extended into this year.

After that, the market catalysts become a little less obvious. Consumer staples checks in at third place, followed closely by industrials (13%), which sticks out for a couple of reasons. First, it’s the strongest sector over the past year, with a 30% return. Second, it’s been led by the construction & engineering group, which is up roughly 40% this year—and nearly 116% year over year—thanks to strong rallies in stocks many traders and investors have likely never heard of, including Comfort Systems (FIX), EMCOR (EME), Fluor (FLR), and Quanta Services (PWR):

To add some perspective, of the four stocks on this chart, only one (FLR) didn’t outperform the strongest “Magnificent 7” stock over the past year (Alphabet).

Tech isn’t going to become an irrelevant sector, and AI is far from becoming yesterday’s news. But the type of performance shown here suggests the market is broadening beyond the megacap cohort that has dominated index returns for so long.

Market Mover Update: On Wednesday, Xometry (XMTR) followed through on Tuesday’s earnings sell-off, falling another 8% intraday (see “Surprises, uncertainty, and sell-offs”).

Today’s numbers include (all times ET): Durable Goods Orders (8:30 a.m.), weekly jobless claims (8:30 a.m.), advance retail and wholesale inventories (8:30 a.m.), EIA Natural Gas Report (10:30 a.m.).

Today’s earnings include: Compass (COMP), CoreWeave (CRWV), Dell (DELL), Hormel Foods (HRL), Intuit (INTU), KBR (KBR), MP Materials (MP), Sunrun (RUN), J.M. Smucker (SJM), NuScale Power (SMR), Block (XYZ), Zscaler (ZS).

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¹ StreetInsider. Xometry, Inc. (XMTR) Tops Q4 EPS by 4c ; Offers Guidance. 2/24/26.