An unpleasant exception to this happy trend has been consumer facing companies. Revenues at consumer staples companies in the S&P have grown by just 3 per cent, and earnings have shrunk by 1 per cent. Consumer discretionary earnings are down 2 per cent year over year when you Tesla and Amazon aside, Bank of America’s equity strategy team calculates. Looking at the two consumer sectors, the list of companies that have reported negative real revenue growth (that is, nominal growth or 3 per cent or less) in their most recent quarter includes Williams-Sonoma, Wynn Resorts, Nike, AutoZone, almost every public homebuilder, Procter & Gamble, Pepsi, Brown-Forman, and many others.