The price action in the retail sector has been tricky of late. Many retail stocks have stalled, or pulled back, while some have fallen on their face. And much of this has flown under the radar. Some of this could be due to the late summer lull and market pullback, or perhaps the market is attempting to price in a luke warm consumer in the face of another debt ceiling and budget debacle (and now potential conflict in the Middle East).
Either way, some big name retail stocks are underperforming. A few notable names that have seen considerable pullbacks include Home Depot (HD), Target (TGT), Walmart (WMT), and Amazon (AMZN). 3 of the 4 stocks have seen their near-term trend lines broken, with AMZN being the exception (although that doesn’t provide much comfort to AMZN investors after a quick 10 percent haircut and indifferent chart setup).
Before we look at the aforementioned retail stocks, let’s look at the chart and setup for the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector (XLY). In the chart below, it’s easy to see that the 50 day moving average was taken out and price is resting on one year uptrend support. A sustained break below the trend line is unlikely to find support until the 200 day moving average (9 percent lower).
Consumer Discretionary (XLY) – A Look at the Retail Sector
Now let’s take a quick look at some key retail stocks that have been struggling.
Target (TGT) Stock Chart
Home Depot (HD) Stock Chart
Walmart (WMT) Stock Chart
Amazon (AMZN) Stock Chart
Some notable recent outperformers include TJX Companies (TJX) and Best Buy (BBY).
Thanks for reading. Trade safe, trade disciplined.
Twitter:  @andrewnyquist and  @seeitmarket
No position in any of the mentioned securities at the time of publication. Â Any opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author, and do not in any way represent the views or opinions of any other person or entity.
