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Maybe Consumer Staples are the best market niche right now

dryflower
edited March 2020 in Fund Discussions
(As of Tuesday's close) VDC(Vanguard Consumer Staples) was only down 10% for the year and up 4% from where it was a year ago. That's pretty stellar, and the rather obvious back story of WHY gives a real foundation to the story.

Minimum Volitility (USMV) hasn't held up nearly as well, down 17% this year and down 4.5% for the last 12 months.

As for VDC, I truly do not like the tobacco part of it, but I have heard it said "There is always money for cigarettes". I think the same goes for most if not all of the consumer staples.

Comments

  • MarkMark
    Does MJ fit in that category? It's been slaughtered like most everything else but there may be a growing desire brewing.
  • dryflower
    Had to MJ up, but no it does not. These are for the most part speculative companies, many if not most without current earnings, involved in a product that is still quite illegal in most states. These companies cannot even be compared to the cash machines called Procter and Gamble, Coke, Pepsi, and Walmart.

    I personally would not dance with Mary Jane.
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    edited March 2020
    I made a real quick 1K on MJ in a couple of weeks last year. Sent 10% of that to MFO. Wouldn't touch it now, though.
  • MarkMark
    I might but not the stock ETF.
  • BenWPBenWP
    edited March 2020
    Probably not a conventional consumer staples stock, but Amazon should benefit and it was reported yesterday in the WSJ that they are hiring 100K workers. If people have money to spend, AMZN will get a chunk of it. Nota bene: “if”
  • Derf
    Amazon YTD -4% Last 5 days -2.6 % What if purchases dry up ? With 100k new workers they're thinking (NOT) !!
    Derf
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    edited March 2020
    Amazon tries to keep pretty much a "just-in-time" inventory. They're likely to run out of stuff to sell before they run out of customers.

    Speaking of that sort of thing, yesterday I thought that it might be a good idea to supplement our full-size upright freezer (which my wife always keeps 106% full) with a smaller 6-8 cu ft upright model. Tried Home Depot, Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon, couple of other places. Not one available within 250 miles of the SF Bay Area. There were lots of models of that type shown, but every one said "SOLD OUT".

    I'm speculating that many people here in the bay area who live in apartments or smaller units may not have had a separate stand-alone freezer, did not really need one because they ate at restaurants frequently, and now are in a difficult situation.
  • BenWPBenWP
    I think you're right, @derf. Amazon has made some great decisions in the past despite a chorus of nay-sayers predicting a demise.
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    I was just at Amazon a few minutes ago, ordering some case quantities of canned goods and some other foodstuffs. They are taking orders now for food items that they don't presently have in stock, with delivery dates anywhere from one to four weeks out. That's not a problem for us (in fact it works nicely as far as our consumption of food reserves), but it echoes what I said above re running out of stock rather than customers.
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