March was good. Very good. Consumers shopped more than they have in several years. Sure, they’re not flinging Benjamins with abandon, but the signs of a turnaround are there. Retail exchange traded funds (ETFs) come in several varieties for you to play along at home.
SPDR S&P Retail (NYSEArca: XRT) is trending higher, up 16% though this March. Now the numbers are coming in, and they’re backing up that performance: same-store sales in March rose 9.1% from a month earlier, the biggest jump since records started being kept in 2000. [Retail ETFs Have Their Work Cut Out.]
Factors such as continued job creation, and a lower rate of unemployment are going to help retailers to continue their advance. However, while the overall mood of consumers has gone from panicked to cautious, a resumption of our normal spending habits is going to take time. [Playing Consumer Staples ETFs.]
Stephanie Rosenbloom for The New York Times reports that rising factory output and a boost in retail sales are bolstering consumers to buy jewelry, cars, clothes and the like. Sales gains in March, in fact, were seen across all categories: spending on luxury goods rose 22.7%; home furnishings, 13.8%; specialty apparel, 5.2%.
On top of that, cargo volume at major retail ports is expected to surge ahead 8% this month from a year earlier.
For more stories about retail, visit our retail category.
Retail ETFs fall into a few categories:
Funds that hold a broad mix of retailers of all types – anything from online travel sites to McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) may be included. Watch out with the HOLDRs: they tend to have very heavy weightings in a few companies and can only be bought in 100-share increments.
Consumer discretionary, a category of spending defined as “non-necessity” items. Televisions, automobiles, DVD players and the like.
- Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF (NYSEArca: VCR)
- First Trust Consumer Discretionary AlphaDEX (NYSEArca: FXD)
- PowerShares Dynamic Leisure & Entertainment (NYSEArca: PEJ)
- PowerShares Dynamic Consumer Discretionary (NYSEArca: PEZ)
- Rydex S&P Equal Weight Consumer Discretionary (NYSEArca: RCD)
Consumer staples, which are the “necessary” items that few of us can live without. This includes toothpaste, household cleaners, toilet paper and basic food items.
- PowerShares Dynamic Consumer Staples (NYSEArca: PSL)
- Vanguard Consumer Staples ETF (NYSEArca: VDC)
- Rydex S&P Equal Weight Consumer Staples (NYSEArca: RHS)
- Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR (NYSEArca: XLP)
And finally, there’s luxury spending. The kind of spending that spares no expense. Coach bags (NYSE: COH), Nordstrom clothing (NYSE: JWN) and stays at Wynn Resorts (NYSE: WYNN). You can access these retailers in the Claymore/Robb Report Global Luxury (NYSEArca: ROBB).
Read the disclaimer; Tom Lydon is a board member of Rydex|SGI.