Energy Sector Is Up, While All Others In S&P 500 Are Down

Falling oil prices has become an easy scapegoat for weakness in the stock market, but on Monday the energy sector is the only one of the S&P 500's 10 key sectors that is gaining ground in midday trade. The SPDR Energy ETF was up 0.5%, while the next-best performing ETFs tracking the other nine sectors are the iShares U.S. Telecommunications ETF , which was down 0.1%, and the SPDR Materials ETF , which slipped 0.2%. The worst performing sector was utilities, as the SPDR Utilities ETF shed 1%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 was down 0.4%, erasing an earlier gain of as much as 0.8%, and continuous crude oil futures were recently 3.3% lower at a 5 1/2-year low. On Friday, when oil futures tumbled 3.6% and the S&P 500 slid 1.6%, energy was the just the fourth-worst performing sector.