Fund Flows Show Optimism in the Consumer Discretionary Sector

The consumer discretionary sector, often considered very important for the consumer-driven economy of the United States, has seen investor optimism over the last week. Consumer discretionary ETFs such as the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT), the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY), and the Fidelity MSCI Consumer Discretionary ETF (FDIS) saw inflows over the past week, as can be seen in the chart below.

The SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT), which has exposure to around 100 US retail stocks, saw net inflows of $335.4 million over the week starting November 16, 2015. The top gainer in the ETF over the last five-day period was Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), which rose 28.5%. ANF was followed by Advance Auto Parts (AAP) and Amazon.com (AMZN).

The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY) and the Fidelity MSCI Consumer Discretionary ETF (FDIS), which have solid consumer discretionary sector exposure, also saw net inflows last week. XLY had inflows of $52.6 million, and FDIS saw inflows of $12.6 million. Both ETFs have top holdings in Amazon.com (AMZN), Walt Disney Company (DIS), and Home Depot (HD).