11:35 AM EDT, 03/26/2024 (MT Newswires) -- CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:

Over the past year, the S&P 500 Consumer Discretionary sector has benefited from an improved employment picture, the absence of recession, and the expectation that the Fed will soon start to lower interest rates. Valuations now look fairly valued, in our opinion. In addition, earnings growth for the sector is not expected to outpace the overall market by a meaningful amount in 2024. What's more, consumer debt levels and delinquencies are rising, and pandemic-era excess savings are nearly depleted. As a result, CFRA analysts have a neutral investment outlook on the group, based on the count of favorable investment recommendations versus the percentage for the entire S&P 500, as well as the cap-weighted average of 4- or 5-STARS index constituents. Finally, from a technical perspective, the sector has experienced an erosion in leadership to a neutral reading from its previously positive position.