As the most important shopping period of the year approaches, some investors are betting shares of beaten-down consumer stocks will benefit if inflation keeps falling and retail sales stay strong.Inc and automaker Tesla Inc to retailer Target Corp, have been walloped by surging prices, with the S&P 500′s consumer discretionary sector falling nearly 33% for the year to date compared with a nearly 17% fall for the broader index.
“There’s some questions as to how strong the consumer really is, so this will be a tricky holiday season,” said Edward Yruma, an analyst at Piper Sandler. “Everybody is watching the strength of the consumer and so far the consumer has held.” “The consumer has been a pillar of strength this year, but as rates keep rising and the labor market slows, consumers will have no choice but to pull back on spending,” the firm’s economists wrote. The bank’s analysts are underweight the consumer discretionary sector.“Recession fears are so priced in to this group,” said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at the Leuthold Group. “If we have a mild recession ... they will do very well from here on out.
Nobody is buying shit...trust me