Retail vs the S&P 500 (XRT): is it outperforming?
Over the past month, XRT has underperformed the S&P 500 by 1.3 points. Here is where that puts it in the sector rotation — updated daily.
Where XRT sits on the rotation map
Retail highlighted against the 11 broad S&P 500 sectors. Vertical: 1-month spread vs the S&P 500. Horizontal: the longer, time-shifted window — the methodology explains the math.
XRT vs SPY: head-to-head returns
XRT (retail) and SPY (the S&P 500) side by side over every window Zensei tracks. The spread is the difference — positive means XRT won that window.
Data as of 2026-07-13 · computed from daily adjusted closes · how we measure
The read
Retail (XRT) is out of favor: it trails the S&P 500 on both rotation windows — 1.3 points behind over the past month and 2.7 points behind over the longer, time-shifted window. That is the lagging quadrant. Ranked by one-month spread, it currently stands #56 of the 115 groups Zensei tracks.
On the shorter tape, XRT's momentum is weakening: the intraday trend that carried the move is cooling across the shorter windows. XRT's relative-strength line is holding around its moving averages — the trend is intact but no longer extending. The longer trend remains healthier than the recent tape suggests — the kind of divergence worth rechecking in a week.
The exposure comes via SPDR S&P Retail ETF, whose 75 tracked holdings are led by GROUPON INC, THE REALREAL INC and BATH & BODY WORKS INC. Weighted by portfolio, the fund's holdings trade at roughly 88.0× earnings and 1.5× sales. The thing to watch from here is the one-month spread: laggards only become interesting when the recent window turns positive first — until then, the market is voting elsewhere.
What's inside XRT
Top 5 of 75 tracked holdings, by portfolio weight.
Retail vs the market — common questions
Is retail outperforming the S&P 500?
Right now, no: over the past month XRT has underperformed the S&P 500 by 1.3 points. This page updates daily, so the answer reflects current market data rather than a dated article.
What is XRT?
XRT is SPDR S&P Retail ETF, the fund Zensei uses to measure the retail group against the S&P 500 benchmark (SPY).
Which stocks are in XRT?
XRT's largest tracked positions are GROUPON INC, THE REALREAL INC, BATH & BODY WORKS INC, n/a, UPBOUND GROUP INC — 75 holdings in total. The full list, with each stock measured against the group, is part of Zensei Premium.
What quadrant is retail in right now?
As of the latest daily data, retail is in the lagging quadrant — trailing the S&P 500 on both windows. The quadrant rules are documented on the Zensei methodology page.
Related sectors
Track retail against the whole market
Zensei Edge maps 100+ sectors and themes against the S&P 500 — with the stocks inside each one, rotation history and alerts when leadership changes hands.