As market volatility continues to shake Wall Street, investors are searching for signs of stability. Michele Schneider, chief strategist at MarketGauge joined TheStreet to explain why retail trends could be the best indicator of when markets finally find their footing.
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Full Video Transcript Below:
MICHELE SCHNEIDER: Well, I think the most interesting sector to watch, to know when the market’s going to be more stable is the consumer sector. We have what we call the economic Modern Family, which are really the inside sectors of the U.S. economy and of course, the consumer, or looking at it through XRT, which is the retail ETF, is the best way to gauge because it has staples, and it has discretionary names in that space. So it was the first sector really to roll over in January, long before we were really hearing these issues with tariffs.
And now we have to watch it here because it went all the way down and broke essentially what would be a recessionary line in the sand. If we’re looking at it from a technical standpoint, it would be about 6419 when we got some kind of a relief headlines. It bounced, but it hasn’t gone anywhere near where it needs to prove that the consumer is buying into. Tariffs are gone. The worst is over. Let’s go in and spend money again. They’re still worried about inflation. They’re still worried about higher costs. And they’re still worried obviously about the impact of tariffs and small businesses. So watch that XRT watch the consumer when the consumers step back and say the worst is behind us, let’s go back and spend money, then I think we can say probably safe to dip your toes in and get more involved.
