Monday Sector Leaders: Utilities, Materials

Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Monday, shares of Utilities companies are outperforming other sectors, higher by 0.9%. Within the sector, FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) and Edison International (NYSE: EIX) are two of the day's stand-outs, showing a gain of 2.6% and 2.2%, respectively. Among utilities ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (AMEX: XLU), which is up 1.1% on the day, and up 7.89% year-to-date. FirstEnergy Corp., meanwhile, is up 7.28...