With the Minutes from December's FOMC meeting due out today, traders will be looking through the release to gain further insight into the Fed's thinking at the meeting where they first announced plans to reduce the monthly bond buying program. With that in mind, we wanted to provide an update to which groups have performed best since the Fed's initial taper announcement on 12/18/13.
The chart below summarizes the performance of the S&P 500 and its 24 major groups since 2PM on 12/18. While the S&P 500 is up 2.7% over the last three weeks, tech related groups have led the way with both Tech Hardware and Software and Services up more than 4%. In addition to these two groups, Media and Diversified Financials are both outperforming the S&P 500 by 100 basis points (bps) or more.
On the downside, it really has been a tide that has lifted all boats as no groups are down since the FOMC's 12/18 statement. That being said, Autos are underperforming the S&P 500 by more than 200 bps, while Household and Personal Products are up less than 1%. Besides these two groups, the only two groups that are up less than 2% are Food, Beverages & Tobacco and Utilities which are up 1.9%.
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