Displaying items by tag: retail

Consumer midcap stocks are starting to show technical strength, with Victoria’s Secret, TripAdvisor, and Steve Madden emerging as standouts beyond the usual Tesla and Amazon focus. 

Victoria’s Secret has surged nearly 50% in three months, breaking out of a consolidation range and reclaiming its 200-day moving average, a sign of a potential trend reversal. TripAdvisor has gained 28% this year, with activist involvement and technical support around $18 pointing to a possible move toward $25. 

Steve Madden, despite being down 27% in 2025, has built a base at $20 and is showing signs of institutional accumulation, suggesting a rebound toward $50 by mid-2026. Retail sales data this week also provided a positive backdrop for the sector, reinforcing momentum for midcaps. 

Finsum: As strength broadens, overlooked mid-cap consumer names like these may offer compelling opportunities relative to the mega caps that dominate headlines.

Fidelity has just taken a big step in the direct indexing game. Direct indexing has been very hot across the asset management space over the last 12-18 months and has mostly been marketed so far as a high-minimum service for advisors to customize portfolios to client desires. Now, with a product called FidFolios, Fidelity is poised to launch a service to let mom and pop investors customize their portfolios with a minimum of just $5,000.

FINSUM: This was bound to happen. Most advisors may see this as a threat to their value proposition, but we more see it as a validation of the utility of direct indexing for clients. Advisors should take this as a sign of confidence that they should offer direct indexing to clients!

Dalio is quick to remind everyone to avoid holding cash as inflation eats away at holdings, but he also recently provided stocks for investors looking to hedge. The first on the list is Global Payments which has sound fundamentals and sequential quarterly revenue gains and is a bright spot in a growing industry. The next was Levi Strauss and Company which shrugged off naysayers who believed supply constraints and bottlenecks would keep them from meeting demand. Finally, was Lithia Motors which is a large automotive group. Supply constraints have boosted used car prices and the industry’s bottom lines.

FINSUM: These are all unique picks that have their built in inflation benefits, particularly the automotive industry.

(Silicon Valley)

Consumers spent more at online stores last year than the previous year by a staggering $900 billion…see the full story on our partner Magnifi’s site

(New York)

One year ago you could have easily said that brick and mortar retail was effectively dead, or at least had a very bleak…See the full story on our partner Magnifi’s site.