Updated with Wednesday’s closing price information.

Over the past 10 years, for just about any period you look at, health care has been the strongest sector in the S&P 500. But not this year. The consumer discretionary sector is one of only two with gains through Wednesday and analysts expect plenty of money to be made on the best sector performers over the next 12 months.

The S&P 500 SPX, +1.05% was down 4% year-to-date through Wednesday, and as Tomi Kilgore explained, the benchmark index made a “death cross” on Aug. 28, when its 50-day moving average fell below the 200-day moving average. Many technical analysts believe that a death cross is a signal that a short-term slide has turned into a longer-term downward pattern.

The S&P 500 made a “death cross” on Friday, when its 50-day moving average sank below its 200-day moving average. FactSet

The 3% decline for the index on Tuesday was driven by more signs of a slowdown for the Chinese economy, with the nation’s official manufacturing purchasing managers index falling to 49.7 in August from 50.0 in July. A level below 50 for a PMI indicates contraction.

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But the S&P 500 rallied with a 2% gain on Wednesday, following what one economist called a “rock solid” private-sector employment report from ADP.

Here’s how the 10 S&P 500 sectors have performed this year, along with longer-term total returns:

S&P 500 sector Total return - YTD Total return - 3 years Total return - 5 years Total return - 10 years Consumer Discretionary 3% 72% 156% 165% Health Care 2% 90% 167% 168% Consumer Staples -4% 43% 98% 167% Information Technology -4% 43% 110% 130% Industrials -4% 46% 105% 127% Telecommunications Services -5% 11% 62% 95% Financials -7% 61% 77% -3% Materials -13% 27% 52% 98% Utilities -13% 28% 61% 86% Energy -20% -5% 31% 51% S&P 500 -4% 48% 99% 98% Source: FactSet

The consumer discretionary sector hasn’t made a death cross:

The consumer discretionary sector’s 50-day moving average remains well above its 200-day average. FactSet

The consumer discretionary sector includes 84 companies, five of which are media conglomerates that have seen year-to-date declines ranging from 16% to 44%, as the loss of pay-TV subscribers weighs on content providers.

But the continued flow of positive employment reports, solid housing reports and the strongest level of construction activity in seven years, all point to the improving economic health for U.S. consumers.

Here are the 10 S&P 500 consumer discretionary stocks that have performed best this year:

We also included the stocks’ declines from their year-to-date closing highs, since the S&P 500 is down 10% from its all-time closing high on May 21.

At this point you might be wondering how useful this information might be. When considering the strongest names, it helps to see how well each company has grown its revenue.

Here’s the same group of companies, with year-over-year changes in sales per share for their most recent reported quarters:

We used sales per share instead of total revenue, because the per-share numbers reflect any dilution of share counts from the issuance of stock, as well as declines in share counts from buybacks.

Under Armour Inc. UA, +1.81% showed the best growth of sales per share for the most recent quarter. The company expects its net revenue for 2015 to rise by 25% and its operating earnings to rise by 13% to 15%.

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Your next question will no doubt be whether these high flyers have run out of steam.

All of these stocks have pulled back from this year’s highs. Here’s how analysts polled by FactSet expect the group to perform over the next 12 months. We have also included the percentages of analysts favoring each stock:

As always, before jumping in, you need to do your own research and consider just how well you think each company will do in growing its sales.