Tax-loss harvesting alternatives for MLM

Among the 5 Construction Materials peers screened, VMC (Vulcan Materials Company) has tracked MLM most closely over the past year, with a return correlation of 0.88. The strongest fund stand-in is XLB (Materials Select Sector SPDR) at 0.65 over the past year. Correlations are computed from daily closing-price returns aligned by trading day.

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STOCKS

Single-name peers

Ticker	Name	Sub-industry	1Y	3Y	5Y	10Y
VMC	Vulcan Materials Company	Construction Materials	0.88	0.89	0.91	0.89
CRH	CRH plc	Construction Materials	0.74	0.70	0.69	0.66
EXP	Eagle Materials	Construction Materials	0.68	0.73	0.76	0.75
KNF	Knife River Corporation	Construction Materials	0.47	0.58	0.56	—
USLM	United States Lime & Minerals, Inc.	Construction Materials	0.38	0.42	0.42	0.41

ETFS

Fund stand-ins

An ETF is generally not 'substantially identical' to a single stock, which is why funds are the standard wash-sale-aware replacement.

Ticker	Name	Focus	Match	1Y	3Y	5Y	10Y
XLB	Materials Select Sector SPDR	Materials Sector	SECTOR	0.65	0.64	0.70	0.68
VAW	Vanguard Materials ETF	Materials Sector	SECTOR	0.64	0.65	0.70	0.68
FMAT	Fidelity MSCI Materials ETF	Materials Sector	SECTOR	0.63	0.65	0.70	0.68
PAVE	Global X US Infrastructure	Infrastructure	SECTOR	0.61	0.67	0.73	0.73
IYM	iShares US Basic Materials ETF	Materials Sector	SECTOR	0.48	0.53	0.61	0.62
SPY	SPDR S&P 500 ETF	S&P 500	BROAD	0.38	0.50	0.61	0.58
VOO	Vanguard S&P 500 ETF	S&P 500	BROAD	0.38	0.50	0.61	0.58
SLX	VanEck Steel ETF	Steel	SUB-IND	0.37	0.43	0.47	0.53
XME	SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF	Metals & Mining	INDUSTRY	0.33	0.40	0.45	0.51
COPX	Global X Copper Miners ETF	Copper Miners	SUB-IND	0.31	0.30	0.35	0.41
GDX	VanEck Gold Miners ETF	Gold Miners	SUB-IND	0.28	0.24	0.23	0.16
RING	iShares MSCI Global Gold Miners	Gold Miners	SUB-IND	0.28	0.24	0.21	0.16

NEXT STEPS

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Replacement research for MLM's peers

VMC CRH EXP KNF USLM

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Method: Pearson correlation of daily closing-price returns, Yahoo Finance data, series aligned by trading day, refreshed weekly. A cell is blank when overlapping history covers less than 60% of its window. Correlation is descriptive, not predictive. Wash-sale treatment depends on facts and circumstances — confirm with a tax professional. Not investment advice.