As global stocks return to a bull market, the losers in the U.S. are companies least tied to economic growth. For the first time since 1999, Standard & Poor’s 500 Index utilities, phone companies and providers of consumer staples posted the only monthly losses, slumping at least 1.5 percent with dividends in January, and continued to lag behind this month.

It’s a reversal from 2011, when the three defensive industries returned more than 6.3 percent as investors embraced stocks thought to do well during a slowdown. Investors are shifting toward riskier assets as U.S. manufacturing expanded the most since June and the jobless rate fell to a three-year low of 8.3 percent. Investors flocked to defensive industries in 2011 as the U.S. unemployment rate held at or above 9 percent until October and the European debt crisis led economists to cut forecasts for American and global growth.

Source: Business Week

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