consumer nondurables

And he argues that the entire group of consumer nondurables should be approached with caution.

"Consumer nondurables and health-care issues did extremely well in the second quarter.

In the stock market, the signs of weakness in the consumer nondurables are still mixed.

So are all consumer nondurables bad buys?

Another strong group was consumer nondurables.

"The real weakness is in consumer nondurables.

Shares of companies involved in consumer nondurables were in demand because traders consider them to have less exposure to economic uncertainty.

Many large-capitalization consumer nondurables were lower yesterday, amid concerns that the strengthening dollar might slow their overseas profits.

Some consumer nondurables posted declines.

Consumer nondurables, like clothing makers, are at 21 percent; financial stocks, 17 percent, and service industries, 11 percent.

Strong Consumer Issues Another sector that demonstrated strength yesterday, as it has for the last couple of weeks, was consumer nondurables.

He believes money will flow into consumer nondurables and health care companies, like Gillette and Johnson & Johnson.

"This is a trend in consumer nondurables," said Brenda Lee Landry, an analyst with Morgan Stanley.

Ms. Cohen, like some other analysts, remains optimistic about producers of consumer nondurables - things that are used quickly and must be repurchased, like drugs and food.

She shifted from energy stocks into services, discount retail and consumer nondurables, including Wal-Mart Stores and Dillard Department Stores.

"Yet we are becoming more competitive in nondurables such as paper, chemicals and textiles and consumer nondurables such as food products and cosmetics.

Gains for Appliances Consumer goods climbed three-tenths of 1 percent last month, reflecting advances in appliances and other goods for the home as well as consumer nondurables.

In market jargon, the producers of "consumer nondurables" - products sold to consumers that do not last long - proved to Wall Street's satisfaction that they could make money regularly and dependably.

Lately, however, money managers have placed less emphasis on consumer nondurables - including tobaccos, soaps and similar products - while enlarging holdings of technology and other cyclical sectors of the economy.

Capital goods concerns, which reported strong profits this year as companies tooled up to meet export demand, are expected to show a 16 percent rise, about the same as in financial services and consumer nondurables.

Those increases were a sign of a more defensive stance among investors, as they pushed cash into retailers and consumer nondurables on the reasoning that demand for their products would be aided by a strengthening economy.

Many companies that make these consumer nondurables - the low-priced packaged goods distinguished from the high-priced durable goods like refrigerators and automobiles - have outperformed the stock market since World War II.

"It is within consumer nondurables industries that American companies possess unassailable worldwide competitive advantages," Roy D. Burry, an analyst at Kidder, Peabody, wrote in a recent report on the beverage industry's outlook.

"I am looking for a bond market rally to shift some stock market laggards into overdrive," he said, pointing to four stock sectors: financial services, health care, consumer nondurables and utilities, all of which are suffering because of higher rates.

When his appointment as manager of the fund was announced in early 1992, the portfolio still bore the fingerprints of Mr. Lynch, who had a fondness for the stocks known as consumer nondurables - makers of foods, beverages and drugs.