Economics
Large Cap Bias Masks Worst Year for Retail Stocks Since '08
- S&P retail group up 23% year-to-date; retail ETF down 9.2%
- Gauges at widest differential since ETF started trading in '07
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Retail stocks are up. Or are they down? Depends where you look.
While the Standard & Poor’s 500 Retailing Industry Index has gained 23 percent this year, making it the best performing of 24 industries in the benchmark gauge, Amazon.com Inc. has overshadowed broader weakness. But investors can’t trade that group without shelling out fees to recreate it. Instead, the most-actively traded exchange-traded fund of retail stocks paints a different picture.