Hungry for a Food & Beverage ETF

The PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage (PBJ) exchange traded fund (ETF) seems to be turning around. It broke above its 200-day trend line and is up 5.7% year-to-date. One possible factor in PBJ’s performance could be that its top holding Monsanto (MON), which makes up 5.6% of the ETF, is up 30.3% year-to-date. Monsanto supplies agricultural farmers with seeds for their livestock and crops. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the PowerShares DB Agriculture (DBA) ETF has been doing well lately too. Another possible factor contributing to PBJ’s rise is Kellogg’s (K) recent price increases on its products. Kellogg’s is PBJ’s second largest holding at 5.1% and is up 10.3% year-to-date.

On a different but equally interesting note, PBJ’s third largest holding Sysco (SYY) is down 6.7% year-to-date. Sysco is the largest provider of food-service products in the U.S. Could one of the reasons for its decline be that people aren’t eating out as much lately?