Staple Sparkle:
The staples elicit feelings of protection, but last year the group as a whole lost 8.4% ending a prior 9 year winning streak. In most roundtables at the beginning of the year they often get little respect, but they consistently put money into investors pockets, via dividends. This year so far they are higher by another 12%. Of course some names will fall by the wayside like a KHC or DF, the latter is now 85% off most recent 52 week highs, not a typo. Not all moves are pedestrian and gradual, as former leader STZ fell 51.9% in less than 3 months between weeks ending 10/19/18-1/11. And a good example of not buying names just for dividends comes from MO now in bear market territory down 22% from most recent yearly peak. The XLP now trades just 1% off most recent 52 week highs ignoring all the naysayers.
Thirst Quencher:
The European markets overall have not kept pace with their domestic counterparts, although they seem to be getting their act together. Names that were not weighed down by the former softness should have both your respect and attention. Below is the WEEKLY chart of DEO and it is easy on the eye. Solid uptrend with no major damage to speak of. In fact the last 6 weeks have all CLOSED very taut, all within just .93 of each other and it has a feel of the beach ball being held underwater. Breaks above that type of consolidation tend to be robust, and this name sitting just 1% off most recent all time highs sports a decent dividend yield of 2.1%. BUD that was recently domiciled in Europe is higher by more than 30% and sports a dividend yield of 3.8%. Cheers!
Examples:
The staples are obviously thought of as a space that is defensive and a provider of yield, with the hope of nice capital appreciation. Below is the chart of not a traditional staple play, but I have not done a staple report in some time so this is as close as it will get until today. The retail behemoth is trading nicely POST breakout from a 100.59 double bottom pivot, and round number theory comes into play with the very round par figure. Between 11/14/18-2/19 there was just one CLOSE above 100, but the stock seems to be liking the altitude above it now with 10 consecutive CLOSES above currently. Respect the trend.