Thursday Sector Leaders: Materials, Industrial

The best performing sector as of midday Thursday is the Materials sector, higher by 2.6%. Within the sector, Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold (NYSE: FCX) and Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE: AA) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 17.8% and 9.9%, respectively. Among the high volume ETFs, one ETF closely following materials stocks is the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (AMEX: XLB), which is up 2.1% on the day, and down 5.96% year-to-date. Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold, meanwhile, is down 15...