Key Retail Report Brings Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF Into Focus

The word of the day is plunge. Retail sales fell like a rock in Germany and fell at a record pace in France. Jobs and retail sales plunged at a record pace in Italy, and in general, did a nose-dive across the entire Eurozone German Retail Sales Plunge Into Contraction Please Consider the Markit Germany Retail PMI® Report. Fastest drop in retail sales since April 2010 as year-and-a-half run of growth comes to an end.

By Stoyan Bojinov:Domestic equity indexes staged an impressive comeback on Thursday as stocks climbed out of a hole in the final hours of trading. Mixed economic reports played a key part in paving the way for back-and-forth trading throughout most of yesterday.

German retail sales bounced back for the second month, but not enough to prevent the aggregate eurozone sales from falling for the eighth consecutive month. Summary of June findings:

OTTAWA — If Canada’s economy is relying on increased corporate spending for growth, businesses don’t appear to be buying into it. Note that the private sector has been almost absent from job creation in the past year. Unless domestic and global elements congeal into a solid recovery, that is unlikely to change significantly this year.

Next week’s calendar is packed with important events and releases, aside of course from the biggest event of the week which are the Italian elections. In fact we already got the first one in the form of China's disappointing HSBC flash PMI which consensus expectations would print stable yet which dropped to a 4 month low. On Friday, the ISM is expected to come out mildly softer vs last month’s strong 53.1 print and consensus at 52.5. Chicago PMI will also be followed by markets on Thursday.

By David Fry (ETF Digest): While the broader S&P 500 has gained a respectable 10% year-to-date, the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR (XLY) is up nearly 15% since the beginning of 2012.

By ETF Database: As the European debt crisis goes on the back burner thanks to hopes for a new bailout package, focus is beginning to shift back to the United States and our own economic problems. Unemployment remains intolerably high and more stimulus doesn’t appear to be coming from either a monetary or fiscal route, leaving hard data as the only catalyst going forward. Unfortunately, data has been lukewarm at best in recent weeks across most fronts.

ETF Database submits: Equity markets have been very choppy as of late, as traders remain unsure of the market’s direction going into the summer. With details of the financial reform, Gulf oil spill and the recent G-20 summit swirling, uncertainty is running high as the curtain falls on the second quarter. However, recent news on the consumer front may suggest that things have bottomed out.