Disinflation squeezing prices of food retailers

General and food retailers are seen as lacking pricing power and suffering increased competition. The result is that the market has been merciless on these companies. Both food and general retailing stores have dramatically underperformed the main market over the last year with the S&P Retail Stores - Food index down by 42.31% in dollar terms over the 12 months to 7 February and the S&P Retail Stores - Department index down by 22.34% in the same time period. These compare with a 14.08% rise in the S&P 500 in the 12 months to 7 February. David Currie, head of US equities at Edinburgh Fund ...