Intermarket Study for 2014
Utilities - XLU - and Health Care - XLV - Outperformed in 2014, and these two sectors saw the biggest % gains later in the year. Health Care and Utilities are considered economically insensitive sectors, and tend to outperform when the market is at risk of a pullback or a sideways markets. Historically, economically-sensitive sectors like consumer cyclical, industrial and energy stocks tend to outperform the stock market in a healthy uptrend.