Leaders-Laggards

Consumer staples took a brief step back last week, but easily remain the top performing sector among defense seekers. The materials sector is looking good for now as multiple industrial commodities, including, of course, lumber prices, keep ripping higher. Market leadership was pretty narrow last week.

Last week’s big reflation pivot had room for some defensive sector outperformance, but real estate wasn’t one of them. The growth-to-value rotation may have been the biggest development last week, but the continued outperformance from utilities shouldn’t be ignored. Although it didn’t really participate in the cyclical rally in the way its peers did last week, the outlook for this sector is still positive.

Comparatively speaking, tech continues to perform better than most growth and cyclical sectors recently, but it’s only performed roughly on par with the broader market. REITs continue to power ahead as the group has become one of the strongest corners of the market. There’s been some up and down with this ratio over the past several weeks, but the trend here is definitely heading up.