Why Retail Stocks Were Up Big Monday

Shares of retail stocks were soaring across the board Monday. The unloved sector seemed to benefit from a massive rotation in the market as investors moved out of high-priced tech and cloud stocks like Okta, Shopify, and Fastly and into low-priced value plays in the retail and energy sectors.

Though the retail sector has been sensitive to trade-related news in recent days, there did not seem to be any specific news driving industry stocks higher. Instead, the market seemed to think that the gap between expensive and cheap stocks had simply gotten too big, and sold high-growth stocks that have generated big returns for struggling value plays that have struggled in retail and elsewhere.

The industry-tracking fund SPDR S&P Retail ETF (NYSEMKT: XRT) finished the day up 3.5%. Among the individual winners in the sector were Michaels Companies (NASDAQ: MIK), up 16.5%; GameStop (NYSE: GME), which gained 10.7%; J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP), up 11.8%; Signet Jewelers , which finished up 11%; and Tailored Brands. A number of big-name retailers, including department-store chains Macy's, Nordstrom, and Kohl's finished up more than 5%.