Thursday Sector Leaders: Energy, Materials

The best performing sector as of midday Thursday is the Energy sector, higher by 3.4%. Within that group, Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) and Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE: SWN) are two of the day's stand-outs, showing a gain of 28.8% and 16.8%, respectively. Among energy ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (AMEX: XLE), which is up 1.0% on the day, and down 0.36% year-to-date. Chesapeake Energy Corp., meanwhile, is down 2.67% year-to-date, and Southwes...