First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund VI First Trust S-Network E-Commerce ETF

ISHP

Market cap $5.35M

The LSEG Retail/Restaurant Index reported Q1 2026 earnings growth of 27.2%. Retail earnings in the first quarter of 2026 received a significant boost from a historic tax refund season, reinforcing consumer spending at a time when the labor market remained resilient. Q2 2026 earnings are currently expected to mark the weakest growth rate of the year, with consensus forecasts calling for a gradual improvement during the second half of the year.

The consumer is still spending, but with a higher level of caution. Inflation remains a persistent pressure point, particularly for lower- and middle-income households.

With the completion of a close presidential election, roughly half of us are likely disappointed regardless of the winner. To counter the post-election blues, I identified some “happy” ETF themes to consider for investment.

When the Halloween decorations go away, holiday shopping begins. Each year consumers continue to surprise us with enthusiastic spending despite inflationary pressure.

If there's one trend that remains a powerful force in markets worldwide, it's e-commerce. Consumers love the ability to click three buttons on any of the biggest platform sites and get what they want in a few days or sometimes hours.

Let's delve into some of the best ETF charts of Q2 earnings.

To date, 145 of the 199 companies in our Retail/Restaurant Index have reported their EPS results for Q2 2024, representing 73% of the index. The blended revenue growth estimate for the 199 companies in this index is 3.5% for Q2 2024. Home Depot reported better-than-expected Q2 earnings and revenue.

Despite uncertainty in consumer strength, consumer discretionary stocks still pulled ahead of consumer staples stocks for most of 2023.That was driven by mega-cap stocks like Amazon (AMZN) and Tesla (TSLA). But recently, the consumer staples sector — including big box and discount retailers — has outperformed the consumer discretionary sector.

In its latest report released last December, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) estimates that the digital economy now represents 10% of the total U.S. GDP, or $2.6 trillion.  The digital economy is also growing at an average annual growth rate of 7.1%.

2023 was a year of surprises. These are five key sector themes illustrated in charts that dominated the ETF world this past year.