Wall St Week Ahead: US stock market leadership eyed

While data so far this year has indicated resilience in the economy, sentiment surveys and other "soft data" have been weak. — Reuters

NEW YORK: Investors head into a busy week for economic data watching if leadership in the US stock market could be moving away from defensive equity areas that indicates greater appetite for risk.

While the benchmark S&P 500 index is down 3.7% in 2025, with stocks jolted by concerns about economic damage from President Donald Trump's tariffs, the consumer staples and utilities sectors, typically seen as more safe-haven areas of the market, are up this year 5% and 5.6%, respectively.