Consumer discretionary stocks strengthened after the Christmas holiday weekend, with e-commerce-related exchange traded funds outpacing brick-and-mortar shops.
On Tuesday, the Amplify Online Retail ETF (NasdaqGM: IBUY), which is comprised of global companies that generate at least 70% of revenue from online or virtual sales, rose 0.7%. Additionally, the internet company-related PowerShares NASDAQ Internet Portfolio (NasdaqGS: PNQI) and First Trust Dow Jones Internet Index Fund (NYSEArca: FDN), which both include hefty tilts toward internet-related consumer discretionary names, gained 1.0% and 0.9%, respectively.
On the other hand, the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (NYSEArca: XRT), the largest dedicated retail ETF, added 0.6% on Tuesday while the broader Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR (NYSEArca: XLY) increased 0.4%.
Supporting the gains in the e-commerce segment of the consumer space, Amazon (NasdaqGS: AMZN), the biggest online retailer, revealed it experienced its best holiday season yet, with over 1 billion items shipped through its Prime and Fulfillment services, along with receiving a record number of orders for its own Alexa devices, reports Jing Cao for Bloomberg.
AMZN makes up 3.2% of IBUY, 8.1% PNQI and 9.9% FDN.