Stocks keep rising to records, but something's wrong with the consumer

Consumer stocks have been conspicuously absent from the market's latest move to record highs. The S & P 500 is up 0.4% in October alone and touched a new intraday all-time high on Tuesday. But the consumer discretionary sector, as measured by the XLY ETF , isn't doing as well. The XLY is down nearly 2% in October, with most of its components struggling. Home Depot has fallen more than 4% month to date, while General Motors has shed 6.1%. Starbucks , Williams-Sonoma and Booking Holdings have dropped more than 3% each. "Near-term and intermediate-term technical trends remain bullish for U.S. Equities, but a few sectors have started to weaken lately, making it right to be more vigilant," wrote Mark Newton, technical strategist at Fundstrat. "Additional weakness looks possible over the next we