Retail Stocks Retreat!

So does this mean the consumer have closed their wallets? The SPDR S&P Retail ETF (Symbol: XRT) which has over 500M in net assets with holdings in a wide variety of the retail space has lost over 10 percent over the past few weeks with 4.4% of this sharp decline  occurring last Wednesday alone. This was the largest one day drop for this widely followed retail stock ETF in almost 5 years. Some individual retailers have even fared worst over the past month or so as their earnings reports and outlooks have been bleak to say the least. Just take a look of the charts of Macy’s (Symbol: M) and Nordstrom Inc(Symbol: JWN) and you can see just how much these retails missed their earnings numbers and well as how they guided for the upcoming quarter and second half of the year.

No question the retail sector sell-off had an effect on the overall markets with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (chart) closing down over one percent on the week, the Nasdaq (chart) finished lower by one half of one percent, the S&P 500 (chart) closed lower by the same margin and the small-cap Russell 2000 (chart) closed the week out down over one percent.

As mentioned in my previous blogthe technical shape of the aforementioned indices appear to be breaking down and this past week did not help at all. So now it’s not just the 20-day moving averages that have been breached, each of these indexes have all now broken through their respective 50-day moving averages. What’s more, is we do not find ourselves in an oversold condition according to the relative strength index also known as the RSI. So with no real market moving catalysts this upcoming week, it is possible that the current selling pressure continues until oversold conditions occur or other support levels are hit. Good luck to all.

~George