On Consumer Staples, Banks & Robots

The defensive S&P 500 Consumer Staples sector has outperformed the broader market so far in this young year, and Jackie finds several reasons it has returned to investor favor. … Also, the S&P 500 Diversified Banks sector appears to be out of investor favor despite its strong recent and projected earnings growth. The industry is fighting two regulatory issues with the potential to hurt future results: Interest by any other name is still interest, the banks argue, and credit-card interest-rate caps amount to price controls, they say. … Also: Humanoids race to market with accelerating speed and grace (they just can’t do laundry, yet).