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 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 Report
downgraded the stock to market perform.
The
Consumer Discretionary Select SPDR
(XLY) - Get Report
gave up 0.7%, dragged lower by selling in
Amazon
(AMZN) - Get Report
, among other stocks.
Vanguard Consumer Discretionary
(VCR) - Get Report
and
First Trust Consumer Discretionary AlphaDEX
(FXD) - Get 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 Report
retreated 0.8%.
Weak economic data, however, helped drive investor appetite for gold and gold-mining ETFs. The
SPDR Gold Trust
(GLD) - Get Report
rose by 0.8%, and
Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF
(GDX) - Get Report
, rose by nearly 1%.
-- Reported by Shanthi Venkataraman in New York.
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