Consumer Stocks Winning at the Pump

Coming off a long, holiday weekend for the quintessential patriotic holiday, bulls sure would have preferred a better open for equities than this one.

However, small cap stocks are green as are many individual names related to the consumer and retail complex. With oil finally correcting after a steep multi-week advance, the old Wall Street adage that consumers will naturally have more spending power with slightly less to pay at the pump seems to be in play. 

Thus, quite a few issues in the XLY and XRT sector ETFs for consumer discretionary and retail names, respectively, are defying the triple-digit Dow selloff as we speak. 

One example of such strength would be Macy's, the iconic department store which has made serious technical strides since last November. On the updated daily chart for Macy's below, we can see not only relative strength to the market here but plenty of strong action on a standalone basis, too. Note how M is ripe to break its bull flag higher over $35 here, likely on condition that the broad market does not suffer a further leg lower. 

Other consumer names exuding relative strength this morning: BC (boating) CMG SHAK. 

Overall, a sloppy open on the back of renewed concerns about Italian debt is hurting financials, to be sure. But a key for bulls will be to see if constructive action in other parts of the market can continue amid the rangebound indices.