Fidelity Select Technology leads the performance table in 2017 with a year-to-date return of 51%. This compares with a decline of 18% for the year’s worst performer, Fidelity Select Natural Gas. Which Fidelity Select Fund will be 2018’s best performer?

The year 2017 is ending on a strong note.

Starting the year below 19,800, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has added nearly 5,000 points this year.

With just a few more trading days to go, Fidelity Spartan 500 Index Fund (FUSEX) that tracks the S&P 500 index (SPX) is up 22% for the year.

Technology stocks have been major beneficiaries of strong growth in foreign markets and a declining dollar.

Fidelity Select Technology (FSPTX) with a year-to-date return of 51% leads the performance table for Fidelity sector funds.

Other funds from the technology sector follow.

Fidelity Select Software & IT Services (FSCSX), Fidelity Select Semiconductors (FSELX), Fidelity Select Computers (FDCPX), and Fidelity Select IT Services (FBSOX) claim the second through fifth spots of the performance table with returns ranging between 34% and 39%.

Other sectors such as consumer cyclicals, health care, and industrials too have prospered in 2017.

With the result, 37 of the 41 Fidelity sector funds are in the black this year.

Commodity-oriented funds, which claimed the top spots of the 2016 performance table, now scrape the bottom.

Fidelity Select Natural Gas (FSNGX) is the year’s worst performer, losing 18%. Fidelity Select Energy Services (FSESX) follows with a 16% decline.

Fidelity Select Funds: The Market Milieu in 2018

The U. S. economy and major economies around the world are expanding at a healthy rate.

The Commerce Department recently reported U. S. gross domestic product expanded at a 3.2% annual rate in the third quarter of 2017.

There is little evidence for a recession in the next six months.