From Seeking Alpha:
Last week, all 12 industry sectors tracked by Morningstar finished down as the weight of the credit crisis, weak earnings growth, and concerns about an economic slowdown or recession bore down on a topsy-turvy stock market.
Energy, telecom and technology, the sectors that have, as Bloomberg reported Monday, “kept the U.S. bull market from collapsing” in recent months, struggled to an average one-week loss of more than five percentage points. Utilities, on the other hand, posted the narrowest slide, just 0.21%. iShares S&P Global Utilities (JXI) did even better, with a 1.3% NAV return that was nearly five percentage points better than the S&P 500, which fell 3.7% for the week.
In fact, the sector and JXI have been on a run lately. Consider that as of Nov. 9, utilities ranked second-best for one-month returns [2.9%] and fourth for three-month [11.4%], three- and five year annualized returns [28.9% and 30.4%], trailing only energy, telecom and industrial materials....MORE
