The market aggregates the performance of various industries into an index. Each industry has its own index as listed by the ticker symbols below.

3.1 Key Industries

US Industrial Sector ETFs

3.2 Key Observations

Our goal is to look at industry performance under economic conditions and compare performance against industries within a certain economic condition to determine winners and losers.

A. During 2008 crash and the onset of recession

1. With the decline in GDP, CPI, and the drop of Fed funds rate, all three indexes crashed with Nasdaq at -40% and Dow at -33%.
2. With the exception of XLV which dropped 25% and XLP which dropped 18% GDX which dropped 26%, everything else dropped at par with the market.
3. T and MA (as a proxy for Telecom and Payments) also dropped, but lower than the overall market.
4. Utilities, Energy dropped at par with Dow.
5. Industrials, SOXX and REITs dropped at par with IXIC.
6. Finance, Technology and Media experienced significantly higher drops than Nasdaq.
7. Therefore, at the onset of the recession, the least affected sectors were Pharma and Staples.
8. Retail was a winner in 2008, did not drop as much as the markets

B. Early phase of economic recovery- 2009

1. With the Fed fund rates bottoming out to spur economic growth, and early signs of GDP recovery, markets operate in a low rate environment. Nasdaq clocked in 43% return, and DJI clocked in 18%. A big gap, as growth heavy Nasdaq thrived in a low rate environment.
2. Utilities and Staples stayed flat, as they normally do in an early stage economic recovery environment
3. Telecom, T stayed flat as well.
4. Consumer Discretionary, Semiconductors, Technology, Media, Autos (F) soared through the roof, overperforming the Nasdaq
5. AMZN, AAPL, MA were clear winners.