The stock market hasn't fared well this year and it's a challenging time to decide where you want to invest. While you may not want to just pull your money out and hold cash, there are low-risk options that you can consider. One exchange-traded fund (ETF) that might appeal to risk-averse investors is the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Consumer Staples ETF (NYSE Arca: RHS). The fund offers some good diversification while focusing on a stable area of the market – consumer staples.
It contains 34 holdings and the fund is rebalanced on a quarterly basis. It includes stalwarts such as Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST), General Mills (NYSE:GIS), and Walmart (NYSE:WMT) – each account for more than 3% of the fund's total weight. And the stocks that are in the ETF aren't expensive, trading at 19 times their profits and less than four times book value.
The ETF yields 2.4% and can also be a great source of recurring dividend income for investors. It charges an expense ratio of 0.40%, which isn't extremely low but it's also cheaper than many other ETFs. It's a small price to pay for some safety; year to date, the ETF is down less than 2%. And while that doesn't sound great, that's better than the S&P 500's 17% decline during that same time frame.
If nothing else, this Consumer Staples ETF makes for a good place to park your money if you're not sure where to invest in just et. It offers good value, some top stocks, and a decent dividend yield. That's better than putting the money in your bank account.
