Citi's World of Staples: The data you need on performance, valuation and earnings momentum for global consumer staples

Global Consumer Staples outperformed the wider market by 12% in October. Both EU and US staples outperformed their respective broader markets with all the sub-sectors delivering positive performance. Among sub-sectors, EU Tobacco (+14%) was the best performing sub-sector while US Food (+6%) underperformed in October. European Beverages & Tobacco — The market rotation towards Staples over the last month has had a particular positive impact on some of the higher beta names in our coverage universe. In Spirits, this backdrop, coupled with management commentary that China off-take trends have improved, promoted a sharp uplift in Pernod and Rémy Cointreau. Elsewhere in Beer, another quarter of under-promise and out-delivery drove a rebound in Heineken shares while worries around China destocking and a softening US drove some relative under-performance of ABInBev. Tobacco had a strong month, with Imperial, BAT and MO all rallying. Looking ahead, we expect the current COGS backdrop into 2027