The Best and Worst Performing Sectors in 2017

Regardless of what you think of it, the second-longest U.S. bull market in modern history continues to rage on.

Even this year, which is the eighth anniversary of the lows of the Financial Crisis, has the S&P 500 charging forward with a 9.5% performance year-to-date. That said, it’s important to keep in mind that individual sectors that make up the market are not created equally – and while some have been crushing it, others have been taking a beating.

Today’s visualization, including a screenshot pulled from FinViz.com, shows a map of stocks in the U.S. market. Divided into different subsectors and colored by performance YTD, it helps give an idea of what has outperformed the market, and which stocks have been left in the dust.

THE WINNERS SO FAR

1. Internet and Software
Companies like Facebook and Alphabet continue to dominate online advertising, while Microsoft, Baidu, and JD.com also are outperforming. SaaS-focused companies like Salesforce, Oracle, Workday, and Adobe also are beating the market as a whole in 2017 so far.

2. Resorts and Lodging
Hotels, cruise lines, and casinos are performing impressively in 2017 so far, even with companies like Airbnb competing on the accommodation front. Wynn Resorts, for example, is up over 40% on the year so far.

3. Aerospace and Defense
With Trump in the White House and both houses of Congress being controlled by Republicans, it’s no surprise to see big aerospace companies like Boeing up over 50% YTD.

4. Healthcare
As the population continues to age, medical appliance and biotech subsectors have taken off in 2017.

THE LOSERS SO FAR

1. Real Estate (Retail)
The “Retailpocalypse” has not been kind to REITs focused on commercial spaces.

2. Auto Parts
With EVs and autonomous vehicles approaching on the horizon, less auto parts will be needed per capita.

3. Apparel Stores
Changing consumer tastes and the transition to online/mobile shopping is making life tough for some companies, like Urban Outfitters, which is down more than -30% on the year.

4. Independent Oil & Gas
The recovery in oil prices that happened in 2016 has not continued into 2017, and this has hurt independent oil and gas producers that have higher average costs.