Tesla’s Drag on XLY Was Softened by Amazon’s Gain; QQQ Felt Almost Nothing
Tesla is down on the year, yet two ETFs that both own the stock are having completely opposite experiences in 2026. The reason has nothing to do with the stock itself and everything to do with a single number buried…
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLY) is off 5.4% year to date. The Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1 (NASDAQ:QQQ) is up 15.6% over the same stretch. What these exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have in common is that they both own Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction), which is down 17.0% year to date, even after a 9.2% gain over the past month. The reason one fund limped and the other sprinted comes down to how much of the stock each holds.
Same Stock, Very Different Doses
In XLY’s most recent filing, dated June 30, 2026, Tesla was 19.6% of net assets, close to a fifth of the entire fund. In QQQ’s filing of the same date, Tesla was 3.3% of net assets. Same stock, but roughly six times the exposure in one fund versus the other.
It’s useful to remember that fund weights drift between filings as prices move and managers rebalance. The weights fall within the year-to-date window rather than covering the full period, so they describe each fund at a single point in time.
Why XLY Fell Far Less Than Tesla Did
XLY looks Tesla-heavy, and it is. But the fund’s top three positions pulled in different directions this year, which softened Tesla’s drag. As of June 30, 2026, the top three were:
- Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) at 22.2% of net assets, and shares are up 11.2% year to date.
- Tesla at 19.6%, down 17.0% year to date.
- Home Depot (NYSE:HD) at 5.8%, down 11.6% year to date.
Two of the three biggest holdings are down on the year, but the very biggest one is up. Amazon carries a slightly larger weight than Tesla, and its gain has been leaning against Tesla’s decline all year. Home Depot’s slide adds pressure, but at a much smaller position size. That is why XLY’s year-to-date loss looks nothing like Tesla’s alone.
QQQ Barely Felt It
QQQ is the counterexample. The Nasdaq-100 tracker owns Tesla but at that 3.3% weight, well behind chipmakers and mega-cap software. In the same June 30 filing, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) was 7.6%, and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was 6.7% of net assets. With Tesla a supporting player rather than a co-lead, its year-to-date drop barely dented the fund, which is up 15.5% on the year.
For a third reference point, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) held Tesla at 1.9% of net assets in its fact sheet dated March 17, 2026, which is an earlier snapshot than the XLY and QQQ figures above and not a same-date comparison. The fund is up 10.9% year to date. Among its 500 holdings, Tesla’s contribution to the year’s return is negligible.
What This Actually Tells Investors
The bet inside XLY is that Amazon can keep doing the heavy lifting when the discretionary sector’s other giants stumble. So far in 2026, it has, mostly. In QQQ, Tesla is one line item among many, and returns have been driven by semiconductors and the rest of the Nasdaq-100’s top holdings. In SPY, Tesla’s swings are diluted to the point of near invisibility.
Spotting a familiar name in a fund’s top-ten list, on its own, tells you almost nothing. The weight is the story. Reddit noise on Tesla can turn bearish in a day, but the number that actually moves an ETF’s price is the percentage next to the ticker in the filings. Those filings, updated as often as quarterly, are public.
What to Watch Next
Two things are worth tracking. The next round of NPORT snapshots will show whether XLY’s Tesla weight held near a fifth of the fund or drifted with the price. And Tesla’s own trajectory, coming off a 9.2% one-month gain against a still-negative year, will decide how much that weight matters when the next quarterly filing lands.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.
Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community. He previously oversaw the 24/7 Climate Insights site, managing editorial operations and content strategy, and currently oversees and creates content for My Investing News.
Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.
Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, overseeing a long-running critique group and moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions. He lives with his family in an old house in the Midwest.
