At the outset of the fourth quarter of 2012, only a single sector earns an attractive rating. My sector ratings are based on the aggregation of my fund ratings for every ETF and mutual fund in each sector.
Consumer Staples is one of my top-ranked sectors. As detailed here, only it and the Information Technology sector get my Attractive rating. Sector ratings, like fund ratings, are based on aggregation of my ratings for each of the stocks.
Two of the three stocks added to our large/mid cap Most Dangerous stocks list for November are from the energy sector. Those stocks are Energy XXI (Bermuda) Ltd. (EXXI) and Superior Energy Services (SPN) – both get my very dangerous rating as do all of the Most Dangerous stocks.
All of the energy sector ETFs get a dangerous rating, which means you should sell them.
Total Annual Costs used to rate a fund's expenses reflects the all-in cost of a minimum investment in each fund assuming a 3-yr holding period, the average holding period for mutual funds.
This rating reflects all expenses, loads, fees and transaction costs in a single value that is comparable across all funds.
Our goal is to give investors as accurate a measure as possible of the cost of investing in every fund to determine whether this cost of active management is worth paying.
The consumer staples and information technology sectors are tops among the ten major sectors. Both get our “attractive” rating. Our Sector Roadmap report ranks and rates all of the 10 sectors. It also benchmarks all sectors against the S&P 500, which gets our “neutral” rating and the Russell 2000, which gets our “dangerous” rating.
We recommend investors avoid all energy sector ETFs. We found no ETFs in the sector that offer investors attractive investment merit and acceptable structural integrity. We also rate the investment merit of the top-9 energy sector ETFs.
Broadband HOLDRS (BDH) is our top pick for telecom sector ETFs. We also rate the investment merit of the top-3 telecom sector ETFs.
Per our first-quarter-2011 review of U.S. Equity Sector
We recommend investors avoid all materials sector ETFs. We found no ETFs in the materials sector that offer investors attractive investment merit and acceptable structural integrity. We rate the investment merit of the top-6 materials sector ETFs.
We recommend investors avoid all utility sector ETFs. We found no ETFs in the utility sector that offer investors attractive investment merit and acceptable structural integrity. We rate the investment merit of the top-5 utility sector ETFs.