Thursday Sector Leaders: Energy, Utilities

Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Thursday, shares of Energy companies are outperforming other sectors, higher by 1.0%. Within that group, Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO) and Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE: SWN) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 6.2% and 5.7%, respectively. Among energy ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (AMEX: XLE), which is up 0.2% on the day, and up 3.60% year-to-date. Marathon Oil Corp., meanwhile, is...