"If you look at the equity market, it’s telling you there’s no recession risk basically,” said Matthew Miskin, co-chief investment strategist at John Hancock Investment Management, adding that defensives so far this year have been a "pain trade."
The utilities sector has a dividend yield of 3.4%, staples stands at 2.7%, while healthcare offers 1.8%, according to data from S&P Dow Jones Indices this week. By contrast, the six-month U.S. Treasury note yields nearly 5.2%. Healthcare's P/E ratio of 17 times is slightly below its historic average. However the sector's financial prospects this year are relatively weak; S&P 500 healthcare earnings are expected to fall 8.3% against a 1.7% increase for the overall S&P 500, according to Refinitiv IBES.
Should concerns about recession spike, as they did last year, defensives could outperform again on a relative basis, according to investors.
huh? are we watching the same market? It's up a lot today. Is this just a dated post?