Amid heightened volatility and uncertainty, major indexes logged their biggest weekly gains of 2016. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 2.8% and 2.6%, respectively, while the Nasdaq Composite Index outperformed with 4% gains last week.
The impressive gains came as fears of recession in the U.S. receded with a slew of encouraging retail sales data, consumer spending, producer prices, factory production, inflation and weekly jobless claim. This reflects that the U.S. economy is regaining momentum after a sluggish fourth quarter and could influence the interest rate policy of the Fed, which hinted at a delay in the March rate hike plan in its latest minutes.
Additionally, oil price bounced back from its multi-year lows and the Chinese economy seems to be stabilizing with no further devaluation seen in its currency, yuan. Further, hopes of stimulus from the central banks in Europe and Japan sparked off another rally last week. Encouraged by these positive developments, investors indulged in bargain hunting. This was supported by sharp decline in most stocks that made their valuations extremely cheap.
However, oil price volatility, uncertainty in the Fed policy, the ongoing China turmoil and sluggishness in emerging markets are weighing on investor sentiment. In such a backdrop, investors could be well served by looking at the ETFs and stocks of the top-performing sectors.
How to Find the Top-Performing Sectors
While identifying the top-performing sector is a daunting task, the Zacks Industry Rank makes this process simpler. The Zacks Industry Rank is determined by calculating the average Zacks Rank for all the stocks in the industry and then assigning a rank to it. So first, we selected the best industries that have the top Zacks ranks.
A top Zacks Industry Rank means that more stocks within that group are seeing upward earnings estimate revisions. Since an industry is a group of stocks in a similar business, this is the perfect way to size it up (read: all the Top Ranked ETFs).
The Zacks Industry classification divides the business world into 16 sectors comprising 60 medium or M-level industries and 260 plus or X-level industries. We rank all 260 plus X-level industries based on the earnings outlook of the constituent companies in each. Lower scores are always better. Industry having a rank of 2.00–2.64 and 2.65–2.81 are very attractive and attractive, respectively, and are thus the top-performing ones.
Technology
After a wild ride this year on a huge sell-off of the high-growth industries – Internet and software – the technology sector looks cheap at the current levels, trading at P/E of 14.2 versus 15 of the S&P 500. Miscellaneous technology is the most attractive sector at present, followed by electronics and computer software.
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