Monday Sector Leaders: Materials, Financial

Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Monday, shares of Materials companies are outperforming other sectors, higher by 1.0%. Within that group, Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE: NEM) and Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold (NYSE: FCX) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 6.0% and 5.4%, respectively. Among the high volume ETFs, one ETF closely following materials stocks is the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (AMEX: XLB), which is up 1.1% on the day, and up 3.98% year-to-date. Ne...