When You Play Defense With Consumer Staples, Which ETF Should You Own? Funds From State Street and First Trust Offer a Stark Choice.

Brendan Coffey, The Motley Fool

Sat, June 20, 2026 astatine 11:37 AM CDT 5 min read

The State Street Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEMKT:XLP) provides low-cost vulnerability to wide U.S. staples, whereas the First Trust Nasdaq Food & Beverage ETF (NASDAQ:FTXG) targets a narrower portion of the manufacture with a absorption connected smart-beta enactment criteria.

Both the State Street money and the First Trust money question to seizure the antiaircraft qualities of the user staples sector, which often serves arsenic a portfolio anchor during periods of marketplace turbulence.

However, they spell astir it precise differently. The State Street money tracks a market-cap-weighted scale of S&P 500 staples, portion the First Trust money seeks to way a antithetic index, the Nasdaq U.S. Smart Food & Beverage Index, which uses factors specified arsenic volatility and maturation to overweight oregon underweight components.

Snapshot (cost & size)

Beta measures terms volatility comparative to the S&P 500; beta is calculated from five-year monthly returns. The 1-yr instrumentality represents full instrumentality implicit the trailing 12 months. Dividend output is the trailing-12-month organisation yield.

The State Street money is importantly much affordable for semipermanent investors, sporting an disbursal ratio of 0.08%. This is simply a fraction of the 0.6% charged by the First Trust fund. While the First Trust money provides a somewhat higher trailing-12-month dividend output of 2.7% compared to 2.6% for the State Street fund, the 0.52 percentage-point outgo quality remains a important origin for investors to consider.

Performance & hazard examination

What's wrong

The State Street Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF concentrates heavy connected the user antiaircraft assemblage astatine 99%, with a insignificant 1% allocation to user cyclical stocks. Its largest positions among its 35 holdings see Walmart (NASDAQ:WMT) astatine 10.83%, Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) astatine 9.1%, and Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) astatine 7.1%. This money launched successful 1998 and paid $2.18 per stock implicit the trailing 12 months.

In contrast, the First Trust Nasdaq Food & Beverage ETF is narrower, focusing connected user antiaircraft astatine 94%, basal materials astatine 4%, and industrials astatine 2%. Its largest positions among its 31 holdings see Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM) astatine 9.9%, Mondelez International (NASDAQ:MDLZ) astatine 8.5%, and The Kraft-Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) astatine 8.3%. This money launched successful 2016 and paid $0.61 per stock implicit the trailing 12 months.