Thursday Sector Leaders: Financial, Technology & Communications

In afternoon trading on Thursday, Financial stocks are the best performing sector, up 0.6%. Within that group, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and SunTrust Banks (NYSE: STI) are two of the day's stand-outs, showing a gain of 3.1% and 2.5%, respectively. Among financial ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (AMEX: XLF), which is up 1.0% on the day, and up 6.69% year-to-date. Bank of America, meanwhile, is up 2.91% year-to-date, and SunTrust Banks, is up 5.16% year...