{"id":81317,"date":"2015-11-20T04:15:36","date_gmt":"2015-11-20T09:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/?p=81317"},"modified":"2015-11-20T11:45:38","modified_gmt":"2015-11-20T16:45:38","slug":"where-are-americans-spending-their-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/2015\/11\/where-are-americans-spending-their-money\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Are Americans Spending Their Money?"},"content":{"rendered":"
November 20, 2015<\/div>
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By WallStreetDaily.com<\/u><\/a> \"1115_STOCKS_AmericanMoney_featured\"<\/p>\n

By Jonathan Rodriguez<\/a>, Senior Analyst<\/em><\/p>\n

Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Commerce released its October retail sales figures.<\/p>\n

For brick-and-mortal retailers, the results weren\u2019t pretty. Sales grew a paltry 0.1%, missing expectations of 0.3%.<\/p>\n

It seems the prevailing idea that cheap gas would fuel American consumer spending hasn\u2019t worked out as economists (and retailers) had hoped. Consequently, investors are selling off retail stocks like crazy.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing: Consumers are <\/em>spending. And with October\u2019s report in hand, we know exactly where.<\/p>

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The Biggest Loser<\/h2>\n

Friday\u2019s report confirmed fears that physical retailers are struggling against the Amazon.com Inc.<\/strong> (AMZN<\/a>) machine.<\/p>\n

Non-store retail sales (online) grew more than 7% from last year. On the other hand, brick-and-mortar retailers in the clothing, general merchandise, and electronics spaces were the biggest losers.<\/p>\n

Urban Outfitters Inc.<\/strong> (URBN<\/a>), for instance, missed on earnings and revenue for the third consecutive quarter. Already down 30% this year, shares fell another 10% after reporting.<\/p>\n

Department stores Nordstrom Inc.<\/strong> (JWN<\/a>) and Macy\u2019s Inc.<\/strong> (M<\/a>) are also down 42% and 26% this year, respectively, and both companies slashed forecasts last week.<\/p>\n

Not even electronics were spared this fall despite early 2015 strength. Best Buy Co. Inc.<\/strong> (BBY<\/a>), which has handled Amazon\u2019s onslaught with ease<\/a> over the last few years, fell in the wake of last week\u2019s retail report.<\/p>\n

However, there are two clear cut winners in the retail space, and that\u2019s where we need to look.<\/p>\n

Food for Thought<\/h2>\n

While Americans may not be shopping, they are<\/em> eating out, and they\u2019re also putting money into their houses.<\/p>\n

Darden Restaurants Inc. <\/strong>(DRI<\/a>) offers a compelling restaurant investment opportunity heading in 2016. The company\u2019s brands include Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, and The Capital Grille.<\/p>\n

Over the last four years, the company has grown revenue by 27%. It has also doubled<\/em> net income from last year. On the earnings front, Darden has beaten estimates for five straight quarters and now projects next year\u2019s earnings at 13%.<\/p>\n

Best of all, shares were sold off with the rest of the consumer discretionary sector, which means they\u2019re ripe for the picking.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, homebuilders have consistently outperformed this year as the housing market picked up.<\/p>\n

In June, home starts hit a seven-year high. Inventories are tight, and buyers have rushed into deals for homes this summer before interest rates rise, further fueling recovery. Best of all, the uptrend shows few signs of slowing down.<\/p>\n

For investing purposes, the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF<\/strong> (ITB<\/a>) provides broad exposure to the entire homebuilding sector.<\/p>\n

Over the last five years, the fund has outperformed the S&P 500 by 89%. Some of the fund\u2019s top 10 holdings include D.R. Horton Inc.<\/strong> (DHI<\/a>), Lennar Corp.<\/strong> (LEN<\/a>), and Home Depot Inc.<\/strong> (HD<\/a>).<\/p>\n

D.R. Horton and Home Depot, in particular, delivered stellar earnings reports this week.<\/p>\n

From a technical point of view, relative strength is rising since bouncing off a four-year support line, and shares have just taken the 50-day moving average.<\/p>\n

Right now, shares trade at a discount to their net asset value, which means this is a good chance to get long homebuilders ahead of next year\u2019s spring housing rush.<\/p>\n

Good investing,<\/p>\n

Jonathan Rodriguez<\/p>\n

The post Where Are Americans Spending Their Money?<\/a> appeared first on Wall Street Daily<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By WallStreetDaily.com By Jonathan Rodriguez, Senior Analyst Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Commerce released its October retail sales figures. For brick-and-mortal retailers, the results weren\u2019t pretty. Sales grew a paltry 0.1%, missing expectations of 0.3%. It seems the prevailing idea that cheap gas would fuel American consumer spending hasn\u2019t worked out as economists (and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81317"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81362,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81317\/revisions\/81362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}