Charted: How Every S&P 500 Sector Performed in Q1 2025

Niccolo Conte
2025-04-07 13:52:00
www.visualcapitalist.com

Charted: How Every S&P 500 Sector Performed in Q1 2025

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After a strong rally in late 2024, the S&P 500 stumbled in the first quarter of 2025, returning -4.6% as market volatility made its comeback.

From policy uncertainty to geopolitical risks, investors faced various headwinds during Q1, including renewed trade tensions and fears of an economic slowdown.

This chart breaks down how all 11 sectors in the S&P 500 performed in Q1 2025. The performance data comes from TradingView, with index weights from S&P Global.

Defensive Sectors Outperform Amid Recession Fears

While the overall index ended the quarter in negative territory, defensive sectors—those that tend to hold up better in market downturns—fared relatively well.

Below is a snapshot of how every S&P 500 sector performed in Q1 2025, alongside its current weight in the index:

The energy sector delivered a 9.3% return and outperformed all other sectors, partly due to rising natural gas prices, which are up 40% in the last six months.

Defensive sectors like health care (6.1%), consumer staples (4.6%), and utilities (4.1%) performed well, pointing toward cautious investor sentiment amid fears of an economic slowdown and ongoing trade tensions.

Meanwhile, growth-heavy sectors bore the brunt of the market’s downturn. The consumer discretionary sector, which includes Tesla and Amazon among its top constituents, saw the sharpest fall with -14% returns.

However, the S&P 500 was likely dragged into negative territory by the information technology (IT) sector, which makes up nearly 30% of the index. Overall, the IT sector tumbled by 12.8%, with Apple (-10.7%), Microsoft (-11.6%), and NVIDIA (-20.3%) all plunging sharply in Q1 2025.

The differences in sectoral performance indicate that investors are factoring in recession risks, based on various factors including a cooling job market and low consumer confidence.

As a result, money is rotating into value and defensive stocks, as well as safe-haven assets like gold and real estate.

Looking Ahead: How Will the S&P 500 Perform in 2025?

The early story of 2025 is one of caution and rotation, and this is likely to continue with fresh trade tensions from Trump’s reciprocal tariffs.

As of Friday, April 4th, in the two days after the tariff announcement the S&P 500 fell by 10.6% with broad selloffs across every sector. Overall, the index is down 17.5% down from its all-time high reached in mid-February.

With the S&P 500 not far from bear market territory, tariff retaliations announced by China, and high uncertainty whether or not U.S. tariffs can be negotiated, the outlook for markets remains highly uncertain in Q2 2025.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed this infographic, check out Global Equity Returns in Q1 2025 on the Voronoi app.

The post Charted: How Every S&P 500 Sector Performed in Q1 2025 appeared first on Visual Capitalist.

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