“As I explained in my Fortune Magazine article last month, 47% of US households live hand-to-mouth and people with incomes of $50,000 or less spend 20% of it on energy. These are the people who are most likely to spend any difference in gas prices immediately, so a ‘tax cut’ at the pump has a favorable impact on them (and the stores / restaurants that cater to them) immediately,” according to Josh Brown, the Reformed Broker.
However, combined fourth-quarter inflows to the aforementioned ETFs are just $45.7 million. That despite the fact that XLY recently hit an all-time high.
Underscoring exactly what investors are missing out on with continued avoidance of XLY and discretionary ETFs, each of XLY’s top-10 holdings, a combined 44% of the fund’s weight, are up over the past month. The worst performer in that group is McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) with a gain of 1.8%. [Holiday Sales Could Lift Retail ETFs]
Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR
