Drowning Our Sorrows in Beer and Petri Dishes

The stock market has just been brutal, with seemingly nowhere to run or hide. With a little less than two months left in the year, the average stock in the S&P 500 was down more than 40% through midweek.

It follows that very few areas of the market have eked out a positive return as we head into the homestretch. Only four S&P subsectors are in the green through Nov. 7. On the other hand, some groupings have lost nearly 90% of their value.

The best and worst of the S&P 500 includes some surprises, as the chart below shows. Who would’ve thought, for instance, that biotechnology would be among this year’s strongest performers? It was up 9% through Nov. 7, behind only brewers, which gained 18%. Picking winners has been even tougher of late, of course: Only one subsector out of more than 100 had a positive return for the past 13 weeks. That was education services, which rose nearly 11%.

At the other end of the spectrum, oil and gas refiners, car makers and consumer electronics were among the worst places to invest. But the biggest loser, not so surprisingly, is the financial industry, which claims the three worst-performing realms to date.