Healthcare sector vs S&P 500 (XLV): is it outperforming?
Over the past month, XLV has outperformed the S&P 500 by 0.7 points. Here is where that puts it in the sector rotation — updated daily.
Where XLV sits on the rotation map
Healthcare highlighted against the 11 broad S&P 500 sectors. Vertical: 1-month spread vs the S&P 500. Horizontal: the longer, time-shifted window — the methodology explains the math.
XLV vs SPY: head-to-head returns
XLV (healthcare) and SPY (the S&P 500) side by side over every window Zensei tracks. The spread is the difference — positive means XLV won that window.
Data as of 2026-08-27 · computed from daily adjusted closes · how we measure
The read
Healthcare (XLV) sits in the Outperformers quadrant of the rotation map: it has narrowly beaten the S&P 500 by 0.7 points over the past month, on top of a 10.6-point advantage over the longer, time-shifted window. Ranked by one-month spread, it currently stands #48 of the 115 groups Zensei tracks.
On the shorter tape, XLV's momentum is weakening: the intraday trend that carried the move is cooling across the shorter windows. XLV's relative-strength line is holding around its moving averages — the trend is intact but no longer extending. The longer trend remains healthier than the recent tape suggests — the kind of divergence worth rechecking in a week.
The exposure comes via Health Care Select Sector SPDR, whose 59 tracked holdings are led by ELI LILLY AND CO, JOHNSON & JOHNSON and ABBVIE INC. Weighted by portfolio, the fund's holdings trade at roughly 40.9× earnings and 6.3× sales. The thing to watch from here is durability: outperformers that hold their one-month spread while the longer window keeps building tend to stay out front; a fading spread is the early exit signal.
What's inside XLV
Top 10 of 59 tracked holdings, by portfolio weight.
Healthcare vs the market — common questions
Is healthcare outperforming the S&P 500?
Right now, yes: over the past month XLV has outperformed the S&P 500 by 0.7 points. This page updates daily, so the answer reflects current market data rather than a dated article.
What is XLV?
XLV is Health Care Select Sector SPDR, the fund Zensei uses to measure the healthcare group against the S&P 500 benchmark (SPY).
Which stocks are in XLV?
XLV's largest tracked positions are ELI LILLY AND CO, JOHNSON & JOHNSON, ABBVIE INC, MERCK & CO INC, UNITEDHEALTH GROUP INC — 59 holdings in total. The full list, with each stock measured against the group, is available with a free Zensei account.
What quadrant is healthcare in right now?
As of the latest daily data, healthcare is in the Outperformers quadrant — outperforming the S&P 500 on both the recent and the longer, time-shifted window. The quadrant rules are documented on the Zensei methodology page.
Related sectors
Track healthcare against the whole market
Zensei Edge maps 100+ sectors and themes against the S&P 500 — with the stocks inside each one, rotation history and alerts when leadership changes hands.