Lighting Up in the Dead of Winter

Stocks are off a bit as we head into a long, holiday weekend with markets closed on Monday. 

One part of the market which has been particulalry impressive of late has been the consumer staples, with UL front and center, spiking higher this morning in light of the Kraft takeover drama. 

Typically, those defensive staples housed in the XLP ETF can see some selling with rates spike up, meaning TLT moves down. 

However, the recent TLT weakness was largely ignored by the staples, with the XLP back over its 200-day moving average consistently for the first time since last September. We have been tracking some of the better charts in the space for Members, and KMB (toilet paper producer, to illustrate how defensive these stocks are) is a prime example, below on its daily chart.

Although staples are not as sexy as, say, TSLA, the resilience is noteworthy indeed all things considering.