FSTA News and Press, Fidelity MSCI COnsumer Staples Index From 01/23/23

Summary The latest December U.S. retail sales surprised observers as the headline index shows sales were weaker than already-weak expectations for December. On a month-over-month basis, many categories struggled across the board. Shoppers spent less on vehicles, gasoline and furniture. ...

Summary Household products are the safest industry regarding valuation and quality scores. Staple/food retail and personal care are overvalued by over 25% relative to their historical baseline. FSTA, an alternative to XLP. 2 stocks cheaper than their peers in January. ...

Summary Economists were expecting a decline, but the 1.1% slide in retail spending in December was deeper than expected. Real spending in annual terms tends to be a more reliable measure of business-cycle risk. Other business cycle indicators are also signaling economic activity tha...

Summary Not seasonally adjusted, and despite the price drops, total retail sales and ecommerce sales hit records. In December, retail sales fell 1.1% from November, while prices of nondurable goods (dominated by food and gasoline) dropped 1.2%. Prices of durable goods (new and used ...

Summary In this post, we provide our key assumptions and outlook for 2023. We are relatively more optimistic than most, as we believe that we are already in the mid-late innings of this downturn. We believe that stabilizing interest rates will provide a base for valuations and expec...

Summary A comparison of funds results in inconsistent outcomes. Investment sectors impacted fund comparisons. Do not lose sight of a fund manager's declared mission. From science and mathematics, I learned that a hypothesis is often posed as a question. What follows is res...

Summary I expect traditional fossil fuel energy companies to continue to excel, rising to up to 30% of the S&P 500 in the upcoming years as technology stocks continue to shrink. After the most aggressive series of rate hikes in decades, inflation is finally moderating. Whether or no...

Summary Inflation continues to moderate, not only here, but also in Europe. Despite the negative economic reports and the reaction to the Fed rate hike, the US Dollar barely budged for the week. Value yet again outperformed Growth in the last week, this time by a spread of almost 1%...

Summary CPI rose only 0.1% in November and 7.1% in the past 12 months. The monthly CPI was lower than the economists’ consensus expectation of 0.3%, and that triggered a massive bond rally that caused Treasury yields to plummet. The Fed never fights market rates, so even thou...

Summary Expectations surrounding central bank policy, China’s gradual reopening and a lower US dollar are key to investor sentiment in the final stretch of 2022. Central banks have increased interest rates at the fastest rate on record, and there are signs that higher yields are ...