S&P & XLB: How a slip in Materials contributed to an S&P 500 move not seen in years

The S&P 500 (SP500) did notch a fourth straight losing week – but it was a miniscule decline stemming from the Materials group, and it produced a remarkable statistic for the benchmark.

The wild week in stocks featured the S&P 500 (SP500)(SPY)(IVV) sliding 3% on Monday, its worst daily session since September 2022, on recession fears. In summarizing the “crazy week” in stocks, Justin Wolfers, an economist and professor at the University of Michigan, pointed out these figures in a post on X (formerly Twitter):

• Last Friday’s close: 5,346.56
• This Friday’s close: 5,344.16
• => A decline of four hundredths of a percent.
• => The smallest weekly drop in over six years.

The slip was the smallest since the week of April 27, 2018 – a photo-finish miss by the S&P 500 (SP500) to avoid extending a weekly run of losses. Ten of its 11 sectors finished higher, with the Materials sector the sole decliner, down by 0.1%.

Here are the top 5 declining stocks in the S&P 500 Materials ETF (NYSEARCA:XLB) on Friday:

Ball (BALL): Daily loss: -1.42%

Packaging Corp of America (PKG): Daily loss: -1.37%

International Paper (IP): Daily loss: -1.11%

Martin Marietta Materials (MLM): Daily loss: -1.01%

Smurfit Westrock (SW): Daily loss: -0.89%