Tag - Ths

During its five years of existence, this company's stock has risen 148 percent, while the iShares Dow Jones U.S. Consumer Goods Sector Index Fund (IYK) - of which it is a member - has risen just 6.3 percent.

That outperformance, from a typically slow growth sector, is worth taking a closer look at

The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) had an up and down session Tuesday, but in the end the bulls won the skirmish. Small caps closed up 1.46%, while the Dow and S&P 500 lagged gains. Some of today’s small-cap gainers are Tween Brands (NYSE:TWB), DR Horton (NYSE:DHI) and Lennar Corp. (NYSE:LEN).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• Tuesday morning’s report on U.S. GDP came in as expected, clearing the way for the market to start on a positive note. The report confirms that the economy is on pace for an “official” recession moniker if fourth-quarter growth contracts as expected. 
• The Fed and Treasury announced a new TAL, which will be granted initial funding of $20B via the original $700B in TARP money. 
• The Case-Shiller Home Price Index tumbled a record 17.4% from last year and the index was down 1.9% in September from the previous month.
• Retailers were in rally mode Monday, but were struggling to stay positive, just a few days in front of Black Friday.
• Tech stocks were a drag on the market, as the tech-laden Nasdaq-100 underperformed the rest of the market and shed 1% on the day.
• Crude oil took a dive today, tumbling $3.7 a barrel, or about 6.8%
• Despite the retreat on physical energy prices, energy stocks still managed to push higher today, and actually outpaced the broad market indices.

Small Cap Gainers:

• Tween Brands (NYSE:TWB) closed up 47% today, rebounding from major losses the stock saw on Monday.
• DR Horton Inc. (NYSE:DHI) jumped 38%, riding the overall housing updraft today despite reporting larger-than-expected quarterly losses.
• Lennar Corp. (NYSE:LEN) soared some 32% as the second-largest U.S. homebuilder benefited from an analyst upgrade.
• Developers Diversified Realty (NYSE:DDR) reported insider buying; shares . . .

Small-cap stocks had an up and down session Tuesday, but in the end the bulls won the skirmish. Support from new government credit rescue plans was juxtaposed against soft economic news, weak tech stocks and a market that may have been ready for a breather after two days of manic gains. The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was up 6.39, or 1.46%, at 443.18 and is now down 42% for the year. The Dow and S&P 500 lagged gains in small caps, but also closed higher and are now down 36% and 42% for 2008, respectively.

Technology stocks were a drag on the market today, as the tech-laden Nasdaq-100 persistently underperformed the rest of the market and shed 1% on the day. Bellwether tech stocks such as Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HPQ), Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO) and Research in Motion Ltd. (Nasdaq:RIMM) took a hit, with HPQ down 5.8%, CSCO off 5.9% and RIMM down 8.3%. Analyst downgrades and worries about spending for technology in a difficult global environment seemed to counter optimism about the new credit facilities throughout much of the day.

The market started out on a positive tone Tuesday, as the government unveiled plans to open credit facilities for mortgage debt and asset-backed consumer products such as student loans, car loans and credit card products, which is hoped will further spark lending interest and help pull the economy out of the doldrums.

Speaking of the economy, the latest read on third-quarter GDP came out today, and as expected the U.S. economy contracted by 0.5%, a sobering thought considering most market watchers expect things to get quite a bit worse in the fourth quarter. Another contraction in GDP in the final quarter of the year would be enough for an “official” recession label, but many argue that we’ve been in a recession for several months already. In addition to the GDP report, a report on housing showed that home prices generated the largest decline on a year-over-year basis on record, but a reading on consumer confidence actually came in above the forecast, a mild upbeat note heading into the big “Black Friday” shopping bonanza in the United States.

The U.S. dollar took a hit versus the euro today, slipping about 0.8%, which should have helped support commodities. But the commodity all of us watch the . . .

The Campbell's Soup Company spends a lot of money advertising its product.
Who among us has not seen Mrs. McNabb on TV serving up steaming bowls of
Chunky goodness to her QB son Donovan and his beefy teammates? Campbell's
spends that money in hopes of getting consumers off the couch and into the
grocery store. But once there, what's to keep the thrifty shopper's eye from
wandering to the private label brands that have less cachet than a brand
name, but offer more value? That very dynamic is exactly what TreeHouse
Foods and its retail partners count on.
 
TreeHouse Foods (NYSE:THS), based in Westchester, Illinois, is one of the
largest standalone suppliers to the $49 billion private label and food service industry. The seeds of the company date back to 1862 and the pickle
business, but after many incarnations, acquisitions, mergers and spinoffs,
TreeHouse has accumulated a diverse product portfolio that includes
everything from infant feeding products to picante sauce, and it has become
the dominant player in this fast-growing segment of the domestic food
industry. Over the past six years, sales of private label products have
grown at twice the rate of branded products. Since 2003, the percentage of
shoppers who purchase store brand products on a regular basis has increased
to 41% from 36%, and there is not a single macroeconomic measure around
today that would suggest a reversal in that trend in the near future.
TreeHouse is working hard to speed up the migration and to make sure
defectors to its products never go back to the branded labels. 
 
One way the company is doing this is by matching the branded labels'
strategy of offering multiple products within the same category. Campbell's
offers old fashioned condensed soup, Chunky soup, low-sodium soup, Select
Harvest soup and many other types, all at different price points. TreeHouse
has matched the "good-better-best" approach, offering a range of products
within categories so that its retail partners can also take consumers up the
pricing ladder while still staying below branded prices. This strategy not
only improves profit margins, but makes it easier to pick off . . .