Defense and natural gas suppliers rank among the worst sectors of the year.
Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com
These five sector ETFs have the lowest return over the previous three months:
- The iShares US Home Construction ETF (ITB | A-59) holds a plain-vanilla portfolio of companies involved in producing homes or selling materials to homebuilders—ITB is down more than 4.7 percent in 2014.
- The PowerShares S&P SmallCap Energy ETF (PSCE | B-24) tracks a market-cap-weighted index of energy companies—PSCE has fallen 5.3 percent this year.
- The PowerShares S&P SmallCap Industrials ETF (PSCI | B-34) tracks an index of lesser-known small-cap industrial names such as Moog and Hillenbrand. PSCI has slid 5.4 percent so far in 2014.
- The iShares US Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA | A-81) tracks an index of airline and defense suppliers such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin. 2014 has been rough for the industry and ITA is down more than 6 percent.
- The First Trust ISE-Revere Natural Gas ETF (FCG | A-99) tracks an equal-weighted index of companies that derive a substantial portion of their revenue from the exploration and production of natural gas. After previously being bid up, FCG has been slammed hard and is down 8.6 percent this year.
