Consumer Staples sector roundup — 2026-10-23
Consumer Staples decoupled from the broader market on Thursday, finishing as the top performing sector with a return of 3.04% while the S&P 500 fell 1.18%.
Consumer Staples decoupled from the broader market on Thursday, finishing as the top performing sector with a return of 3.04%¹ while the S&P 500 fell 1.18%².
The rally was absolute; 100% of the sector's stocks rose during the session³. The median stock returned 3.76%⁴, led by gains from General Mills (8.01%)⁵, Brown-Forman Class B (7.1%)⁶, and The Kraft Heinz Company (6.77%)⁷. Heavyweights also contributed, with Coca-Cola up 2.87%, Walmart up 2.82%⁸, and Costco up 1.99%⁹. At the industry level, perfumes, cosmetics, and other toilet preparations saw the highest median return at 4.27%¹⁰.
This daily performance extends a period of strength relative to the wider market. The sector is up 3.48% over the last week¹¹ and 9.08% over the last month¹². Specifically, Consumer Staples has outperformed the S&P 500 by 10.58 percentage points over the past month¹³ and by 4.83 percentage points over the last three months¹⁴. Year-to-date, the sector has returned 15.91%¹⁵, with 82.9% of its companies currently trading above their 50-day average¹⁶.
Educational tool. Not investment advice. This article was produced with automated assistance. Every figure in it was checked against the underlying data before it was published; the interpretation was not.