s&p sector weight (图)

For a period of several months investors were watching for the day when the information technology sector surpassed the financial sector in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index. That day came May 24, when tech took over as the sector with the largest weighting in the bellwether index for the first time since the Internet bubble burst in 2000. But financials are now in a tug-of-war just to hang onto second place. After peaking in late 2006, when the financials accounted for about 22% of the market value of the S&P, those stocks have slipped amid the housing crisis and credit crunch, and as of Monday, actually fell into third place behind energy companies. They switched sides again Tuesday, and now “the seesaw has started,” says Howard Silverblatt, equity index analyst at Standard & Poor’s. As of Tuesday’s close, financials accounted for 15.2% of the index, and energy was at 14.88%. At 11:15 a.m., the gap had narrowed, with 15.17% for financials and 15.01% for energy. The energy sector has naturally been bolstered by record profits owing to huge increases in underlying commodities prices, as well as strong worldwide demand.