- It's been a year dominated by technology stocks. And for good reason.
- Homebound consumers have turned to technology for everything from working to socializing.
- But it's shopping that may be seeing among the biggest boosts, and niche online retailers - not behemoths like Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) - that have seen the biggest change of fortune since the start of the year.
- Plenty of investor attention tends to focus on the biggest tech giants thanks to their eye popping numbers, meanwhile.
- Apple, for example, gained 35% over the last month - tacking on $530B in market capitalization - and bidding its forward earnings multiple to 34 from 28.
- And high profile software companies like Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) and Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) saw their stocks surge over the week - shares are up 30% and 28% respectively - after delivering blockbuster earnings.
- The enthusiasm was reflected in the Global X Cloud Computing ETF (NASDAQ:CLOU). Both CRM and WDAY have a roughly 4% allocation to it, and CLOU ended the week up by 7%.
- But with less fanfare than the high profile cloud plays or AAPL, a group of specialty retailers powered the Amplify Online Retail ETF to a 17% gain over the last month. And that month caps a stellar year that puts its YTD gains at 78% - the highest of the Consumer or Technology ETFs monitored by the Seeking Alpha ETF tracker.
- Niche retailers including Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK), Carvana (NYSE:CVNA), Wayfair (NYSE:W), Revolve Group (NYSE:RVLV) and Chewy Inc (NYSE:CHWY) have led the ETF's returns over the last month.
- Very strong gains by retailer OSTK - shares are up 1,297% YTD - have led the way. Some analysts have cited the stock as benefiting from the Covid-induced stay at home trends among the 'seismic forces' that could drive the stock up by another 40%.
- W, CVNA, and CHWY have all more than doubled since the start of the year.
- To be sure, valuations for the ETF as stretched. OSTK trades at 285 times forward earnings, RVLV trades at 36, and the other three companies are in the red.
- But as the Covid pandemic sprawls and tech stocks see their valuations stretched, IBUY may continue to run as investors search for focused plays on the homebound consumer.
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