ETF comparison
VAW vs XLB
Both Materials.
Vanguard Materials Index Fund ETF Shares · State Street Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF
Holdings overlap
25 positions appear in both funds. Buying equal dollars of VAW and XLB would leave roughly 72.2% of each dollar exposed to the same underlying securities.
Unmatched is the part of a fund's weight the other fund doesn't match: names only it holds, plus any extra weight it puts in names both funds hold.
Side by side
Sub-score comparison
Tracking quality isn't part of the composite — see what we don't score for why.
Cost difference
XLB is 1 bps cheaper than VAW. On a $100,000 position that's about $10/yr more in fees for VAW.
Fee figure is the annual expense charged on $100,000. To see how the gap compounds over a multi-decade holding period, open the cost calculator pre-filled with VAW vs XLB.
Top shared holdings
25 shared in total| # | Holding | In VAW | In XLB | Overlap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Linde PLC | 14.62% | 14.06% | 14.06% |
| 2 | Newmont Corp | 8.77% | 5.84% | 5.84% |
| 3 | Freeport-McMoRan Inc | 7.01% | 5.30% | 5.30% |
| 4 | Sherwin-Williams Co/The | 5.13% | 4.94% | 4.94% |
| 5 | Ecolab Inc | 4.64% | 4.73% | 4.64% |
| 6 | CRH PLC | 4.07% | 4.67% | 4.07% |
| 7 | Air Products and Chemicals Inc | 4.03% | 4.62% | 4.03% |
| 8 | Corteva Inc | 3.66% | 4.96% | 3.66% |
| 9 | Nucor Corp | 3.57% | 3.88% | 3.57% |
| 10 | Vulcan Materials Co | 2.27% | 4.72% | 2.27% |
| 11 | Steel Dynamics Inc | 2.06% | 3.73% | 2.06% |
| 12 | Martin Marietta Materials Inc | 2.01% | 4.55% | 2.01% |
Only in VAW
85 total- Royal Gold Inc 1.43%
- Amrize Ltd 1.40%
- Coeur Mining Inc 1.39%
- Reliance Inc 1.26%
- Hecla Mining Co 0.86%
- RPM International Inc 0.86%
- Alcoa Corp 0.85%
- Crown Holdings Inc 0.84%
- Solstice Advanced Materials Inc 0.65%
- AptarGroup Inc 0.54%
Only in XLB
1 total- DuPont de Nemours Inc 2.48%
Related comparisons
More comparisons with VAW
- VAW vs XME · State Street SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF 23.3%
- VAW vs PICK · iShares MSCI Global Metals & Mining Producers ETF 16.4%
- VAW vs GDX · VanEck Gold Miners ETF 12.4%
- VAW vs GUNR · Northern Trust Morningstar Global Upstream Natural Resources ETF 9.6%
- VAW vs COPX · Global X Copper Miners ETF 4.8%
- VAW vs GDXJ · VanEck Junior Gold Miners ETF 2.5%
More comparisons with XLB
- XLB vs XME · State Street SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF 15.8%
- XLB vs GUNR · Northern Trust Morningstar Global Upstream Natural Resources ETF 10.8%
- XLB vs PICK · iShares MSCI Global Metals & Mining Producers ETF 10.4%
- XLB vs GDX · VanEck Gold Miners ETF 5.8%
- XLB vs COPX · Global X Copper Miners ETF 4.8%
- XLB vs GDXJ · VanEck Junior Gold Miners ETF 0.0%
Percentages are holdings overlap with the named fund.
Open VAW or XLB at a brokerage
Both funds trade commission-free at major US brokerages.
Affiliate links — opening an account through these earns PlainIndex a one-time referral. Scoring is computed before any affiliate consideration; see our methodology and funding disclosure.
Holdings overlap is the sum of min(weight_a, weight_b) over positions
matched on ISIN (CUSIP fallback). Methodology: see
/methodology/.
Comparing two funds doesn't endorse swapping one for the other. Tax-lot history, account type, and personal goals matter — PlainIndex publishes data and methodology, not investment advice.