The first half of 2020 — marked by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic — hurt most, but not all, companies. But don't look to the S&P 500, which declined by a relatively modest 3.1%, for evidence of the widespread damage, Sumit Roy, analyst and senior staff writer for ETF.com and ETF Report, wrote in a recent blog post. Instead, look at the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF, which was down 10.8% — maybe "a better indicator of this widespread damage," he wrote. Worse still were the losses incurred by these exchange-traded funds:
  • Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund: down 34.6%
  • Financials Select Sector SPDR Fund: down 23.7%
  • Industrials Select Sector SPDR Fund: down 14.6%
Not all companies have suffered during the downturn, according to Roy. Some sectors — communication services, consumer discretionary, technology — are buoying the S&P 500  Index, offsetting the losses in other areas. Roy noted that at the end of June, shares of Apple, Amazon, Zoom and others had hit new all-time highs. "It's an unusual situation: These companies are actually thriving in what is an extremely negative environment for most businesses," he wrote. Many ETFs with concentrated positions in these sectors have gained 30% or more year to date. Check out the gallery to see the top-performing ETFs in the first half, according to ETF.com. See the rest of the list here. --- Related on ThinkAdvisor:
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