A quick “glance under the hood” shows us which sectors have been hot in 2014, which have not and which could be leaders for 2015.

The nine SPDR Sector ETFs have been telling us about the advances and declines of the various sectors throughout the year.  While many of us had our own expectations about how well any given sector would outperform the S&P 500, we were all shocked to see the energy sector take such a severe drubbing.

So far during 2014, the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) is down 3.63 percent, while the S&P 500 is up 12.14 percent.  As the Thanksgiving Day news reports reminded us, OPEC’s continuing refusal to limit oil production by its members has allowed oil prices to fall.  The resulting oil glut has sunken the stock prices for oil exploration, extraction and refining companies.  Oil related stocks have dragged the XLE ETF lower.  Although XLE ended the November 26 session at only $85.30 per share, the price was a significant improvement from its October 15 close at $80.56.  XLE is the only SPDR Sector ETF which is in the red for 2014.

At the other end of the spectrum, the top-performing SPDR Sector ETF for 2014 is currently the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV), with a 24.78 percent advance.  Beyond that, on November 26, XLV ended the day at a record-high closing price of $69.18, after reaching a record, intraday high price of $69.21 per share.  The pharmaceutical industry comprises 44.48 percent of XLV’s allocation and the biotech industry accounts for 20.37 percent.

The Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLU) is the second-best performing SPDR Sector ETF for this year, with a 19.88 percent gain.  On November 26, XLU closed at $45.52 per share.

What makes the performances of Healthcare and Utilities so unusual is that these two sectors are typically viewed as defensive sectors, but they have been leading the market higher even though we’re still in an overall bull market.