Looking for a Safe Haven? Take a Look at Consumer Staples -

Looking for a Safe Haven? Take a Look at Consumer Staples - 

With markets reacting negatively to concerns about a weakening U.S. economy, investors might do well to look at the consumer staples sector, according to Standard & Poor's equity analyst Thomas Graves

Graves said that S&P’s equity strategy recommends overweighting consumer staples, which currently represent 10.7% of the S&P 500 Index. 

The sector, he notes, is up 4.5% year to date, which is a lot more than the S&P 500 overall, which shows a gain of just 2.75% since January 1.

Graves expects to see global sales increase for consumer staples thanks to higher marketing expenditures by companies and increasing demand in developing economies -- although these gains will be limited by rising commodity prices and by continued high unemployment in the U.S. which leads consumers to shift to private label products and away from brand named goods.

Another plus for consumer staples: its constituent stocks tend to pay more dividends than the broader market.  The sector’s yield is averaging 3%, compared to just 2% for the whole S&P.

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http://www.onwallstreet.com/news/consumer-staples-analyst-investors-etfs-2674486-1.html