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Amazon shares were up 10.1% this past week.
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Crises make strange bedfellows. Just look at the new class of defensive stocks: utilities, consumer staples, healthcare—and Big Tech.
Over the past week, the
Technology Select Sector SPDR
exchange-traded fund (ticker: XLK) was the market’s best performer, rising 6.3%, followed by a 6.1% gain for the
Communication Services Select Sector SPDR
ETF (XLC). The defensive
Utilities Select Sector SPDR
ETF (XLU) climbed 4.1%, followed by the
Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR
ETF’s (XLY) 3.6% gain.
In reality, though, technology did the heavy lifting. Given sector divisions, XLC includes Big Tech names like Google parent
Alphabet
(GOOGL) and Facebook parent
Meta Platforms
(META), which gained 12.8% and 10% this past week, respectively, while XLY is home to
Amazon.com
(AMZN), up 10.1% for the week, and
Tesla
(TSLA), which rose 7.5%.
That makes three of the four best-performing sectors this week tech-centric, even as big market swings fueled by banking worries sent investors for cover in relative safe havens. Aside from utilities’ rise, the
Health Care Select Sector SPDR
ETF (XLV) climbed 1.7% and the
Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR
ETF (XLP) added 1.5%, making them the fifth- and sixth-best performers. Likewise, gold prices jumped just under 6%, notching their…
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