Consumer Cyclical Stocks, Including Under Armour, Making Big Moves on November 13, 2012

The morning has been good for the market. The Nasdaq is trading up 0.2%; the S&P 500 has moved up 0.6%; and the Dow has increased 0.5%. The consumer cyclical sector is a category of stocks that relies heavily on the business cycle and economic conditions. Consumer cyclicals include industries such as automotive, housing, entertainment and retail. The category can be further divided into durable and non-durable sections. Durable cyclicals include physical goods such as hardware or vehicles, while non-durables represent items like movies or hotel services. The performance of consumer cyclicals is highly related to the state of the economy. They represent goods and services that are not considered necessities, but luxurious purchases. During contractions or recessions, people have less disposable income to spend on consumer cyclicals. When the economy is expanding or booming, the sales of these goods rise as retail and leisure spending increase.

The Consumer Cyclical sector (XLY) is up 0.9%, outperforming the market overall. The biggest movers in the sector so far are:

Company	Market Cap	Percentage Change
Westport Innovations Inc (Nasdaq:WPRT)	$1.46 billion	+3.7%
True Religion Apparel (Nasdaq:TRLG)	$683.1 million	-3.6%
Hanesbrands (NYSE:HBI)	$3.21 billion	+3.5%
Deckers (Nasdaq:DECK)	$1.1 billion	-3.3%
Under Armour (NYSE:UA)	$5.19 billion	+2.8%
G-III Apparel (Nasdaq:GIII)	$714.1 million	+2.2%
WABCO Holdings (NYSE:WBC)	$3.67 billion	+2.1%

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After rising 3.7%, Westport Innovations Inc (Nasdaq:WPRT) is currently trading at a share price of $27.51. So far today, 722,692 shares have changed hands.

True Religion Apparel (Nasdaq:TRLG) has decreased to $25.54 per share, a 3.6% fall. So far today, 196,155 shares have changed hands, on pace to finish the day below yesterday's volume of 600,368 shares.

Increasing 3.5%, Hanesbrands (NYSE:HBI) is trading at $33.94 per share. The company's volume for the day so far is 415,793 shares. This is consistent with its current three-month average.

After a decline of 3.3%, Deckers (Nasdaq:DECK) has hit a share price of $30.16. The company's volume is currently 638,458 shares for the day, 0.2 times the average daily volume.

Under Armour (NYSE:UA) has increased to a share price of $50.99, a 2.8% rise. The company is currently trading a volume of 751,433 shares.

After an increase of 2.2%, G-III Apparel (Nasdaq:GIII) has reached a current price of $36.32. So far today, the company's volume is 26,217 shares, which is likely to result in less activity than yesterday's volume of 100,123 shares.

Rising 2.1%, WABCO Holdings (NYSE:WBC) is currently trading at $59.34 per share. The company is currently trading a volume of 136,845 shares. This is 0.2 times the average volume over the last three months.

The Bottom Line No matter the economic climate, Wall Street will always have stocks that make major moves each week. Daily stock performance should be weighed against historical performance and put in context of the market overall. However, these fundamental metrics must be analyzed with historic data, industry information in addition to firm specific financial statements.