Friday Sector Leaders: Technology & Communications, Materials

Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Friday, shares of Technology & Communications companies are outperforming other sectors, higher by 0.9%. Within the sector, Etsy Inc (NASDAQ:ETSY) and Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 6.8% and 4.0%, respectively. Among technology ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSE:XLK), which is up 1.1% on the day, and up 29.20% year-to-date. Etsy Inc, meanwhile, is up 52.01% year-to-date, and Seagate Technology Holdings PLC is up 79.31% year-to-date. STX makes up approximately 0.2% of the underlying holdings of XLK.

The next best performing sector is the Materials sector, up 0.8%. Among large Materials stocks, Carrier Global Corp (NYSE:CARR) and Mohawk Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MHK) are the most notable, showing a gain of 2.7% and 2.3%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Materials stocks is the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLB), which is up 0.7% in midday trading, and up 25.82% on a year-to-date basis. Carrier Global Corp, meanwhile, is up 49.35% year-to-date, and Mohawk Industries, Inc. is up 25.96% year-to-date.

Start slideshow:
25 Dividend Giants Widely Held By ETFs »

Comparing these stocks and ETFs on a trailing twelve month basis, below is a relative stock price performance chart, with each of the symbols shown in a different color as labeled in the legend at the bottom:

Here's a snapshot of how the S&P 500 components within the various sectors are faring in afternoon trading on Friday. As you can see, six sectors are up on the day, while two sectors are down.