Consumer staples take a dive ...

This is a bit worrying ... The consumer staples sector sold off big time today, breaking through a small trading range and hitting lows not seen since Nov. 20-21.

According to the Investor's Daily site: Proctor & Gamble (PG) was off 5% after it lowered its full-year outlook. It added that sales this quarter and possibly for the rest of the year may fall. The company is often thought of as recession-resistant.

2-5-09 Update: Yesterday, a weak rally in consumer staples. Today, another loss, and falling relative strength. (I sold some VDC, IYK today.) Charts on many of the individual issues don't look good, save for a couple retail drug stocks, CVS and WAG. Makes sense--health care is looking strong and these drug retailers look good. (Sam Stoval of S&P recently highlighted the retail drug sector.) Several other sectors also look better, inlcluding large cap growth and technology--two areas that have just perked up.