Americans may be struggling…
But that hasn’t stopped many from spending gobs of money this holiday season.
We can see that with Amazon (AMZN), for example, which ran from an October low of $118.35 to $146.74 so far. All thanks to an explosive holiday season that saw online Black Friday sales jump 7.5% year over year to $9.8 billion.
“The best-selling categories of Black Friday, the Adobe report found, were electronics like smartwatches and televisions, along with toys and gaming. Meanwhile, home-repair tools underperformed,” added CNBC.
That’s just Black Friday. “Adobe also expects the spending strength to hold over the weekend and through Cyber Monday with the biggest bargains still ahead. The report forecasts that online shoppers will spend roughly $10 billion over the course of Saturday and Sunday, and a record $12 billion on Cyber Monday.”
Even Target (TGT), Walmart (WMT), Macy’s (M), and Williams-Sonoma (WSM) got a holiday boost so far… and could race even higher. Even ETFs did explosively well heading into the holiday shopping sprees. Look at the Amplify Online Retail ETF (IBUY), for example. Since the start of November, the ETF ran from about $41 to $47.82.
Or, take a look at the VanEck Vectors Retail ETF (RTH), too.
With an expense ratio of 0.35%, the fund tracks the MVIS US Listed Retail 25 Index. At the moment, it holds Amazon, Home Depot, Walmart, Costco, Lowe’s, and TJX Companies as some of its top holdings. Since the start of November, the RTH ETF ran from about $163 to $178.81. From here, if RTH can break above resistance, it could test $181 shortly.
Just something to think about when you trade the holidays.