Consumer Sector Insights for the Week of October 2–6, 2017
By Sushree MohantyUpdated
Market and consumer sector’s performance last week
With the start of the third quarter earnings season, the S&P 500 Index (SPY) (SPX-INDEX) finished the week ending October 6, 2017, with positive growth of 1.2%. The consumer staples sector fell 0.29% last week led by Costco Wholesale’s (COST) shares, which fell after a dip in its fiscal 4Q17 gross margin.
Pharmaceutical companies like CVS Health (CVS) and Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) dragged down the S&P 500 Index after CNBC’s report about Amazon’s (AMZN) entry into online drug sales.
The consumer discretionary sector rose 1.8% last week due to an increase in General Motors (GM), Lennar (LEN), and Priceline’s (PCLN) stock prices.
Other events that drove the market last week
September jobs data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on October 6 also drove the market last week. Impacted by Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma, non-farm payrolls fell by 33,000 in September—way below economists’ estimates of an addition of 85,000 jobs. On the brighter side, the unemployment rate fell to 4.2% from 4.4% and wages rose 0.5% to an average of $26.55 an hour.
Consumer sector–based ETFs were average in the week ending October 6. The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY) rose 1.8% last week. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) fell 0.29%, while the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLP) fell 0.31%, respectively.
As of October 6, the S&P 500 Index (13.9%) has outperformed the S&P 500 Consumer Discretionary Index (12.7%) and the S&P 500 Consumer Staples Index (4.1%) on a year-to-date basis.
