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.
Consumers seem to be more willing to open up their wallets. According to the New York-based Conference Board, consumer confidence jumped in December to the highest level since August 2001 as more were upbeat about the outlook than at any time since the last 13 years, reports Michelle Jamrisko for Bloomberg.
Further revealing the increased demand for online purchases, United parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) revealed it expects record e-commerce sales to create another record return packages to retailers on January 5, or National Returns Day, which could crate opportunity for sales as 70% of online shoppers make additional purchases when returning items, reports Ryan Vlastelica for MarketWatch.
“In aggregate, it will be difficult for consumer discretionary stocks to justify their valuations, which are not attractive,” Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at Phoenix Financial Services, told MarketWatch. “However, there will be winners and losers in the space. Some companies should have done well this holiday season, while others – like Sears or Abercrombie ANF – may have continued to be losers.”
For more information on the consumer sector, visit our consumer discretionary category.