“For a long time it looked like Amazon was going to get the leg up on retail and really put them out of their misery,” Gordon said.
In previous years, a strengthening Amazon and rising optimism over the outlook for e-commerce trouncing the traditional brick-and-mortar space have weighed on the traditional retail sector and related ETFs. For instance, from the beginning of 2014 through the end of 2016, Amazon (NasdaqGS: AMZN) surged 88% higher, whereas the XRT ETF was flat.
“All of a sudden we’re starting to get a bit of a closure of that gap here,” Gordon added. “XRT is catching back up to Amazon.”
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