Give the Consumer Staples Select Sect. SPDR (ETF) (NYSE: XLP) some credit. The largest consumer staples exchange-traded fund by assets is up 6.6 percent year-to-date despite strong dollar headwinds and the subsequent challenges created by speculation, though now dwindling, that the Federal Reserve will soon raise interest rates.
Add to that, XLP has mustered its >6.6 percent gain, one of the better year-to-date showings among the nine sector SPDR ETFs, with no help from Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) or Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT).
Procter & Gamble, the world's largest maker of household products, and Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, are two of just seven members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average down at least 10 percent this year. Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart are XLP's largest and sixth-largest holdings, respectively, combining for 16.5 percent of the ETF's weight.
/www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/long-ideas/15/10/5942807/problem-children-arent-derailing-consumer-staples-etfs alt=Problem Children Aren't Derailing Consumer Staples ETFs>Full story available on Benzinga.com
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