Consumer ETFs Fall on Jobs Data
NEW YORK (
) -- Markets recovered in the latter half of Friday's trading after dropping more than 1% following weak jobs data.
Consumer-focused exchange-traded funds came under selling pressure early in the day, soon after data showed that the U.S. economy shed 131,000 jobs, far more than the projected 87,000 decrease. On Thursday, retailers declared lower-than-expected same-store sales, which also worsened investor sentiment.
By the end of the Friday session, this particular batch of ETFs managed to recover some of their losses, though they still finished in the red.
The
SPDR S&P Retail ETF
(XRT) - Get SPDR S&P Retail ETF Report
, which shed more than 2% in early trading, closed 0.5% lower. Its top holdings include
Aeropostale
(ARO)
, which lost close to 4% after an analyst at
Wells Fargo
(WF) - Get Woori Financial Group Inc. American Depositary Shares (each representing three (3) shares of) Report
downgraded the stock to market perform.
The
TheStreet Recommends
Consumer Discretionary Select SPDR
(XLY) - Get Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund Report
gave up 0.7%, dragged lower by selling in
Amazon
(AMZN) - Get Amazon.com Inc. Report
, among other stocks.
Vanguard Consumer Discretionary
(VCR) - Get Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF Report
and
First Trust Consumer Discretionary AlphaDEX
(FXD) - Get First Trust Consumer Discretionary AlphaDEX Fund Report
, an actively-traded ETF, were other prominent losers.
Financial ETFs also lost ground, even as markets recovered. The
SPDR Financial Select Sector
(XLF) - Get Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund Report
retreated 0.8%.
Weak economic data, however, helped drive investor appetite for gold and gold-mining ETFs. The
SPDR Gold Trust
(GLD) - Get SPDR Gold Shares Report
rose by 0.8%, and
Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF
(GDX) - Get VanEck Gold Miners ETF Report
, rose by nearly 1%.
-- Reported by Shanthi Venkataraman in New York.
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